A New Day
by Justthisguyyouknow
Summary: The third story that follows "Ten Seconds" and "Floating". Takes place 120 years after the war. All the characters have died and been reborn. Toph and Sokka have to find their new selves, while a new Water Tribe Avatar is being named. Non Korra Compliant. Now with Sword Fight!
1. Chapter 1

A New Day: pt. 1 A Tokka Reincarnation Fic

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><p><strong>Set up:<strong> This occurs 120 years after the end of the series. All the characters have been re-incarnated and the Water Tribe Sages are about to announce who the new Avatar is. This is a follow up to "Floating" which was a follow up to "Ten Seconds" thus forming a Triptych of sorts. Sokka who died in "Ten Seconds" has already been re-born once lived a full life and has died a second time before this story begins. The focus is on Sokka and Toph, with Katara, and Aang thrown in, but some of the other characters from the series will have brief cameos. I have thrown a couple of twists in but they will be pretty obvious. Hope you enjoy it. This is non Korra Compliant.

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><p>Shu was sitting in a too small chair in his manageragent/business manager/father's office in Gaoling. He was not particularly interested in what the "Old Man" had to say but 18 years of conditioning kicked in and he listened anyway.

"I tell you kid" his father was saying "this is the time. We all know that the new Avatar was born 16 years ago in one of the Water Tribes and the rumors say they are going to announce his name on the winter solstice. This is your big break, if we are there and you can become his earthbending teacher it will put you over the top. You don't actually have to teach him anything. We can get some other poor schlub to do the actual grunt work, but if you are named as his teacher that will put us up there with Toph. Look what it did for her, 'course she didn't really make use of it like she should have, but she was known as the greatest bender of her time. You already are the greatest earthbender alive today. I mean four years undefeated champion of Earth Rumble gives you that, but being the new Avatar's earthbending sifu will put us in the undisputed top spot and we can ask whatever we want for personal appearances and the Rumble purses will jump to the next level for us."

"The Northern Water Tribe Sages are starting to _disappear._" Shu's father said with a wink. "Traveling incognito so it has to be someone in the Southern Tribe. Everyone is going to be there. All the top earthbenders, firebenders, airbenders, big choice there" the "Old man" said with a nasty chuckle, "and he probably already has a waterbending master. We have to be there, to be seen, if nothing else. You've got to sell yourself to him, if he has any sense he'll snap you up, but we have to make sure he does."

Shu knew his dad was right. His dad had been right all of teenager's life. He had made Shu the earthbender he was today. His father had beaten it into him when he was just a kid that Shu was going to be the best, that nothing could stop him, it only required hard work and training, and taking advantage of every opportunity and every weakness of his opponents.

"Metalbending!" Shu's father continued, "You've got to get that kid! If we could metal bend the Avatar would have to make you his sifu. Then we could write our own ticket."

The "Old Man" had been pacing up and down the office the whole time he was speaking, and now he walked behind Shu and slapped him on the back of his head.

"You big lummox, she invented metal bending when she was twelve, and you still can't do it! You are a real disappointment, you know that!"

Shu knew who _she_ was. All his life there had only been one _she_, one _her_, Toph Bei Fong, the Blind Bandit. His father had held _her_ over Shu's head since before he could remember. The large teenager decided that the great tragedy of his life was that he was born the year _she_ had died. He would never be able to face _her_ in combat and prove how much better he was then _she_ was.

"Dad" wasn't finished yet, so Shu sat there and listened to the rest of the plan.

"I've got passage all lined up for us on a ship leaving tomorrow for the South Pole. Everything we will need will be onboard waiting for us. I've got the whole group together and they will be with us the whole way, but it is going to be up to you to close the deal with the new Avatar. Do you think you can get off your lazy butt and do that?"

The "Old Man" slapped him on the head again for emphasis.

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><p>Shu stood ten stories up, on the balcony of his suite of rooms in the city of the Southern Water Tribe. The bell hops were bringing in his luggage and distributing it around the rooms. At least he was by himself. He had been able to talk his father out of coming down with him, telling the "Old Man" that if Shu was alone he would stand out from all the other benders who would have large entourages with them. Plus the savings in transportation and lodging helped quite a bit. His Dad was a cheapskate on top of everything else.<p>

The large earthbender was glad to be on solid ground again, well solid ice at least. The sea voyage had been a miserable experience, he was sick the entire time. There was something about being out of touch with the earth that just made him uncomfortable, disconnected, and floating. Shu hated the feeling. He had changed his reservations and was going to be taking an airship back. He was not sure it would be any more comfortable but at least it would be a faster trip. Even now that he was off the ship he still felt loose, out of touch with the world, standing on ice was not the same as standing on good solid earth. Also he had to contend with these giant shoes, boots or whatever they called them that he had to wear. Like most earthbenders he preferred to be barefoot but in this place that was a sure way to lose your feet to frostbite. The hotel had, "at great expense, sir" imported a ship load of earth and rocks and had spread them to cover the floor of the lobby and lounge. Apparently he was not the only earthbender to feel out of place in a world of snow and ice floating on a great sea.

Shu looked out over the white expanse to distract himself from the discomfort and the cold. He was freezing out here and the room wasn't any better. How could it be when the entire thing was made of ice. His balcony looked out over the walls of the city at the great wasteland of the polar ice cap. About two or three leagues beyond the walls he saw a small patch of dark color on the ice. When he looked more carefully he realized that it was a settlement or small village out on the ice near the shore. It consisted mostly of small domed white buildings. They were so small that huts would be a better word to describe them. The color had been a few tents scattered throughout the "Village". _Tents!_ How could people live in tents in this climate? Shu thought to himself _These Water Tribe people must all be crazy_.

The Concierge came up to the earthbender to inquire if there would be anything else they could do for him. As Shu dug some coins from his purse for the staff he commented,

"I really should come back here in the summer when it is warmer".

The Concierge gave a deprecating smile and replied,

"Actually sir, this is our summer and a rather warm one too. It seems that each year the summers are longer and warmer and the winters shorter but colder then the last."

"This is summer?" Shu asked.

"Yes sir," the Concierge responded, "In the North it is winter but in the South it is summer. We may be at the bottom of the world, but we are still able to turn the seasons on their heads as it were."

The large teen gave the hotel man a weak smile to acknowledge the weaker joke and handed him the coins. The Concierge bowed his head and turned to leave, signaling his party of bell hops to exit the suite. Shu stopped him with,

"Oh one last thing, what is that village out on the ice over there?" and he pointed to the snow houses and tents he had seen earlier.

The Concierge came up to the railing of the balcony and looked out to the village.

"Oh that", he began, "Those we call the 'Old Ones', very quaint, they are just a few crackpots that live in the old ways. They build temporary shelters of snow, or use tents. They travel across the ice with the seasons, hunting and fishing using the old tools and weapons. Very strange people really, I don't know how they can live like that but they are able to survive somehow."

Shu thanked the Concierge for the information and watched as he left the room. The earthbender looked out over the ice cap again, intrigued by these "Old Ones". He decided he would visit the village. It would be something to do while he waited for the solstice and the announcement of the new Avatar.

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><p>Shu watched as his breath became fog as it left his mouth. The hike out to the village had not been too bad, at least it had warmed him up a little. The village was really quite small, only a few families, mostly young children running around. They seemed to be teasing a young woman?, girl? It was hard to tell with all the heavy clothes the Water Tribe girls wore just how old they were after they reached a certain height. She had a staff that she was leaning on and she seemed to be the butt of some kind of game the little children, and some not so little, where playing.<p>

_Blue and white_ not much of a palette, Shu reflected. He liked bright colors, and lots of them. Since he was little the large teen had always liked color and movement. This white landscape with blue clad people seemed desolate and blank to him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw some green and dark red and immediately turned to see what it was. He saw a group of five or six people mostly in green Earth Kingdom heavy clothes but it looked like a Fire Nation outfit was in amongst them. He was not sure but in the lead it looked like "The Stone Monkey", his main contender for the next Earth Rumble. Shu had fought him in the past. They had a great rivalry and the "Monkey" was not one to stick to the rules when he wanted to win.

Someone in the distant group noticed that Shu had spotted them, and the group began to move quickly behind a ridge of ice at the outskirts of the village. The large earthbender began to run after them, trying to keep an eye on where they went. He wanted to be sure that it was the "Monkey" in the lead and if it was, Shu was going to confront him. As he ran across the center of the village he hit something soft and heard a loud "ooof", he spared a quick look to see what it was and saw the girl with the staff splayed out on her back in the snow.

Shu turned back to find the "Monkey" group but they were out of sight and he had no idea where they had gone. He went back to the young woman, to help her up. The children, who had been teasing her before, seemed to be taking great delight in her discomfort, and were laughing and pointing at her. They moved away as he approached but they kept up their whispered remarks and pointing.

Shu approached her as she sat up in the snow. He bent down and as he offered her a hand up he told her,

"You might want to look where you are going in the future."

The girl rudely ignored his hand and began patting the snow around her as she replied,

"I'll have to remember that."

Shu was starting to get more than a little irritated with this teenager. She runs into him, ignores his help and she won't even look at him. She never once looked up, keeping her head down and a little to the side as she continued to pat the snow in ever increasing circles around her.

The large teen took his hand back and straightened up but continued to stand in front of her. Because of the hood on her parka, Shu still had not seen her face, but he could imagine what she must look like with this kind of attitude. All scrunched up and prissy looking to be sure. He heard her sigh, then saw her literally throw up her hands and ask,

"Do you see my wand?" She still had not looked at him.

"Your what?" Shu asked

"My wand", she answered, then went on, "my staff, my stick,"

Then her voice changed to that of a theatrical old lady,

"My comfort in my old age"

Then it changed again to the voice of a stereotypical witch,

"My wand of great power." Which she ended with a nasty cackle of a laugh.

The water tribe teen then turned her body around towards the children and in her witch voice called out,

"And when I get it, it will be the worse for all of you, my pretties" which ended in an even louder and more malicious cackle.

Much to Shu's surprise the children suddenly went still and looked really scared and then ran off leaving the two of them alone. _These people are crazy. _He told himself. He then spotted the girl's staff lying off to the side, outside of her reach. He stepped over and picked it up and offered it to her, but she once again ignored him. She continued to pat the snow all around her.

_She is the rudest person I have ever met_ Shu commented to himself, finally saying,

"Here!".

Her reaction was not what he had expected. In a quizzical voice she asked,

"There, everywhere? Is this some sort of game you play with everyone you run into?"

"Your staff! Or wand or whatever you call it." Shu said still holding it out to her.

"Oh.. Thanks" The young girl sounded sincerely grateful as she turned towards him and reached out with both hands, but the way she held her hands it was obvious that she expected him to place the staff in them for her, and she still had not looked up at him.

Since Shu was irritated he was careful to place the staff gently in her hands, but he did not let go of it. They both held it for a moment, both applying steady pressure. He saw the tension building in her. He said,

"Hang on!"

And pulling on the staff, lifted her up out of the snow. He misjudged her weight, all those bulky Water Tribe clothes, and she flew up onto her feet.

"Weee!, well that was fun!" she cried out as she landed on her feet.

The girl's hood had fallen back, and now that she was standing in front of him, Shu could finally see her face. She was actually very pretty with long dark brown hair pulled into a braid down her back and with the traditional hair loops in the front. She had the dark skin of the Water Tribe, a pretty face with a strong chin, but the most striking thing were her eyes. She had large, dark, ocean blue eyes but there seemed to be a film or fog over them muting their striking color.

She was still not looking at him, seeming to be staring at his left shoulder. He suddenly realized that she might not be able to see, that she was not ignoring him but that she could not see him. He suddenly felt very guilty for the irritation he had felt towards her. Embarrassed he said,

"I'm sorry…"

Her face went through a quick succession of expressions, starting with surprise, then to question, to understanding, to accusation. Her right hand came off the staff and pointed to herself as she asked,

"You mean you're sorry I'm blind?" then the finger turned towards his chest as she continued "So…. It's all your fault! I should have know, my mother always told me that when she was pregnant with me she saw this impossibly ugly earthbender and the sight was so horrible that she knew that her baby would be blind from birth! So that wasn't enough for you, after blinding me in the womb, you have come here in person to torment me by knocking me down in the snow. Have you no shame!"

Shu let go of the staff as if it were on fire and took a step back, raising his hands to deny the accusation. He defended himself with,

"I've never been here before, besides your only fourteen or fifteen, I would only be three or four when she would have seen me."

"Fourteen, but you could have been an extremely ugly baby."

"My mom said I was very cute as a baby." Shu said realizing that this was some sort of game she was playing with him.

"Mom's always lie about their kids."

"But I am so handsome now I had to be adorable back then." He replied, feeling a little smug with what he thought was an excellent repost.

"Well I am the most beautiful girl in the world so no matter how adorable you were, you would still have been extremely ugly compared to me."

"How do you know that you're the most beautiful girl in the world?"

"I've never seen anyone prettier than I am, and until I do, I have to assume that I am the most beautiful girl in the world."

"Your logic is unassailable." Shu conceded. "I guess it is all my fault".

"I am glad you admit it" she said as she started to brush the snow off of her back.

"Here let me help you" Shu stepped up and began to use his mittened hand to brush the snow off of her. In doing so he discovered that there were some nice curves under all that clothing.

"Katara? Are you alright?" Shu heard a girl call out.

He stopped what he was doing and looked up guiltily as he saw another teenage girl run up to the two of them. _So… her name is Katara,_ he told himself, and he stored the information away for later use. He was starting to like this crazy girl.

Shu had spent all of his life training, and had never had a friend, let alone a girlfriend. The only girls that he knew were the girls that competed in the tournaments and the ones that hung around the competitors and he had never been very comfortable around any of them. This Katara was not impressed by who he was, she was silly and crazy, but she gave as good as she got and she was fun, not to mention that by her own admission she was the most beautiful girl in the world, and in his own opinion she was very pretty.

The girl that had called out ran up and took Katara's arm, asking,

"Is everything ok?"

She then gave a sharp look at Shu and asked, "is this big lug bothering you?"

Shu put on the most innocent face he had in his repertoire and held up his hands in surrender.

Katara turned from him to her friend, he noticed that even when she turned her attention towards someone she was always "looking" off to the side at a slight downward angle.

"Hama," The snow covered teen said. "This is the earthbender that scared my mother and struck me blind in the womb. He even admitted it to me."

Hama gave Katara an odd look then turned sharply back to Shu.

"So, you're the one responsible. I should have known just from your beady look." Then speaking out of the side of her mouth she asked Katara "How do you know he's and earthbender?"

"You can smell them" Katara answered, also out of the side of her mouth. "Don't show fear, they can sense it and will attack. Just smile and look confident."

The two girls then turned two over enthusiastic smiles in Shu's direction, Hama making eye contact and Katara more towards his left shoulder. Shu smiled back. He noticed that Hama was also young, maybe a few years older than Katara. She had black hair with the same loopies in the front. Hama had lovely clear grey eyes.

"Talk to him" Hama nudged her friend "It may have a soothing effect."

"Well my name is Katara" she said speaking as if to a dangerous animal, "just like every other girl born in the South for the last one hundred and twenty years. "

Hama turned to her and said in a hurt tone "Not every girl".

"True" Katara responded "some, well one, is named after another of the great heroes of the war".

"That's right!" Hama said." They had both turned to each other by now and were ignoring Shu.

"That's why we're friends, you're the only girl here not named Katara."

"Just be happy we were born in the South. What if we had been born in the North?"

"We'd all be named Yue and no one could tell any of the girls apart."

"Poor Sokka" Hama sighed.

Katara turned toward Shu and told him sotto voce,

"Sokka's my brother" then turned back to Hama with, "Yes, North or South all the boys are named Sokka. There must be tens of thousands of them by now."

"My name is Shu. I was named after the first earthbender."

The two girls suddenly turned their extreme smiles back on and faced back towards him. Katara started humming a tune. "

I heard they like music." She side mouthed to Hama.

Hama let a loud cloud of breath escape from her nose and leaned in to Katara and asked her,

"How long do we have to keep this up?"

Katara dropped her silly smile and asked in return.

"Oh is he still here, I had forgotten all about him? By the way what's he look like?"

"Well… he is very large."

"Muscles?"

"Lots!" Hama said in a growl.

"Hey! I saw him first!"

"No you didn't!"

"Ok, but he ran into me first!"

"Oh, all right."

"Little, tiny head?" Katara asked in a worried voice.

"Normal."

"Eyes?"

"Two."

"Color?" The younger girl asked obviously irritated.

"What do you care?" Hama asked.

"I care, alright?"

"Green."

"Oooo… I like that, what about his butt?"

Shu was used to posing for his fans in and out of the ring. It was the only thing the "Old Man" could not take away from him and he really enjoyed the attention, well to be honest the adulation. He turned around and struck a double bicep muscle pose for her. It was the pose he used after winning a fight, and was his favorite.

"Hard to tell with all the clothes." Hama mused.

"Offer to brush the snow off his back." Katara suggested.

Shu felt the blood rush to his face when he heard that. He didn't think he was being that obvious when he was "helping" Katara earlier.

"He doesn't have any" Hama said.

"He doesn't have a butt?" Katara asked in horror

"Snow!"

"Oh, I can fix that" Katara said with assurance. Shu turned to see Katara stick her staff in the snow then stoop down and pick up a large clump of snow. She reared back to throw it and then asked in a very sweet voice,

"Excuse me sir, would you please count to four for me?"

Shu bent down and began to pick up a pile of his own as he said "I said my name is Shu."

Katara's head turned as he spoke and she zeroed in on his face for the first time, and before he had finished his statement the clump was in the air and coming right at him with amazing speed. It hit him in the face and shoulder. He was blinded for a moment and had to drop his clump to free his hands to wipe the snow out of his eyes. As he did so he heard Hama say,

"You hit his face, not his back".

Katara sighed "a woman's work is never done".

As he cleared his vision he could see that she was picking up more snow and making it into a ball this time.

A snowball fight ensued. Hama was very fast and an excellent shot. Katara would not shy away from incoming shots, how could she, but she would respond in kind any time she got hit. Shu was surprised at how accurate she was just by using the return angle of any hits she received. She was also very good at throwing at the sound of his voice, or the crunching of the snow as he took a step, or packed the snow into a missile.

Shu quickly learned that some snow was better for packing into ammunition then other snow was. His first few flew apart as they left his hand. He also found that he was a terrible shot. He had never had to actually throw anything before. He had always relied on earthbending.

"No fair waterbending!" Katara shouted at one point.

"I'm just helping the snow stick together!" Hama replied defensively.

Katara responded by throwing a chunk of snow at Hama and it became a three way fight. Katara dispensed with packing the snow and just began to hurl piles of it at both of them. Shu let the more experienced fighter be his guide and did the same. Soon they were all screaming and yelling and laughing, covered in snow from head to foot. Their breath coming out in great gusts of fog, as they warmed to the work.

Shu had never had so much fun in his life. His dad had never let him play with anyone. It had always been train, train, train. He wasn't allowed to play, but had to compete with everyone he ever met. It was a revelation to him that you didn't have to care who won or lost as long as you had fun. And the two girls knew how to have fun, without being prissy or silly, well they were silly, but not in that girly way some girls were. They dove right in there, they'd take a hit to give a hit.

Suddenly a man's voice cut through the fight with an angry shout of,

"Katara! Just what do you think you are doing young lady!"

Hama dropped her snow ball and tried to look innocent. Katara, who had been just about to hit her with a clump of snow, stuck her tongue out at Hama and finished the throw hitting her in the head. Then Katara very sweetly called out,

"Nothing, brother dear!"

Shu then saw Hama take a step towards Katara while sweeping her arms up and forward, a large pile of snow leapt up into the air and buried Katara.

A young man strode onto the battlefield, he looked to be about Hama's age, his brown hair tied up into a high pony tail, with the same ocean blue eyes as his sister. He began the same movement that Hama had made, except at the end he continued the sweeping arc of his arms reversing his stance. The snow flew off of Katara and headed for Hama, but before it arrived she had changed her stance and raised her hands. The young man and Hama began a lyrical and complicated dance around each other. The water responded by moving and flowing and changing, from water to ice, from ice to snow, and back again.

Shu had seen waterbending displays before but never anything like this. The two of them were so in-tune to one another that it became one continuous dance. Shu was completely enthralled by the skill and beauty of it.

After a time Katara walked towards Shu and told him,

"They can keep this up for hours. Do you see my wand any where?"

With difficulty, Shu pulled his eyes from the two benders and located Katara's staff still stuck in the snow. He retrieved it and handed it to her.

"You should join in" The earthbender suggested "I bet you could put them both to shame."

Shu didn't know why but he felt supremely confident that even at her age Katara was a waterbender like no other in the world.

"That would be difficult, since I am not a bender " Katara said as she took the staff from him.

"Not a bender?" Shu said incredulously, then, he laughed loudly. "Don't try to fool me!" he finally got out between his guffaws.

He saw an odd look flash across her face. Then she became a little serious as she told him,

"I'm not a bender."

Shu couldn't believe it.

"Oh come on, don't be silly" he said. "You act like a bender. You look like a bender. You have to be a bender! "

A non bender could never be as alive as she was. In his life non benders were the cleaners, the cooks, the lesser people. Katara was too much alive, she was too smart, too independent, too pretty to be one of them. He liked her too much. He could never like or respect a non bender.

"Never been a bender, and never will be." Katara told him, with a little frown.

"You can't…, not be…" Shu started then he trailed off.

Was she serious? How could he have missed it? Was she trying to fool him about being a bender, or had she been fooling him all along? Was she acting like a bender all this time just to mix in with other benders? He suddenly felt very uncomfortable standing there with her. He didn't like to be deceived, and she had obviously put one over on him. She and her friends had probably set this whole thing up and would have a good laugh at his expense later after he was gone.

"Good one!," Shu complimented her, then as he continued he hid his embarrassment behind anger and disdain, "You really had me guessing for a second there, but now that I look at you it is really quite obvious that you don't count. You should be more careful though, trying to pass yourself off as a bender could get you in a lot of trouble. You really should know your place."

Shu saw the surprise enter Katara's face, which caused him to feel even more embarrassed, which he hid with heavy sarcasm.

"I've had a delightful time here and was happy to be of such entertainment for you." He told the blind girl.

Anger filled Katara's cloudy eyes, then it quickly shifted to hurt, which she just as quickly pushed down as she said in a cold voice,

"How generous of you, or should I say how like a true earthbending master. Sorry to be such a disappointment to you and, it is my sincerest wish that you will not be plagued by the likes of me in the future."

"Don't worry" He retorted bitterly, "I'll be much more careful from now on!"

"Excellent!" Her anger was evident now. "I would keep an eye out to insure your safety from contamination, but that's impossible for me!"

"Don't worry I will keep both of mine on the lookout for your kind."

"Thank Tui and La for that" she said making a slight bow to Shu. "Otherwise I would have to rely on your stench to warn me I was getting too close, and one dose of that is enough for this life time!"

"MY PLEASURE!" He shouted back at her.

Shu could feel the heat in his own face and knew that his pale skin must be bright red by now. He noticed that her dark complexion was much darker than it had been, and he could swear that he could see a vein pulsing on her forehead.

"The pleasure of NEVER meeting you again will be all MINE! A pleasure that I will forego no longer. GOODBYE!" And with that the blind girl turned and walked away, using her staff to feel the path before her.

She had only gone a few steps when Shu saw her falter for a step, then she shouted to the sky,

"EARTHBENDERS!"

Then she straightened herself and continued on her way, into the village.

There was a splash and Shu turned towards where he had last seen Sokka and Hama. Hama was soaking wet and Sokka was standing looking embarrassed trying to apologize. Hama took a horse riding stance and moved her arms out in a strong gesture. The water flew off her, changed to frost and then fell to the snow covered ice. She strode over to Shu, Sokka following her.

Hama's anger was more than evident as she asked the earthbender

"What did you do to Katara?"

Sokka gave Hama a surprised look and then gave Shu an angry one.

"Nothing!" the large teen replied, now feeling guilty.

"I'll bet" Hama said, then turned and chased after her friend calling,

"Katara, wait up!"

Shu looked at Sokka, whose dark face looked even darker than it normally did. Shu thought he saw a vein pulsing in Sokka's forehead. _Must be a family trait_ the teen eartbender thought. Sokka seemed about to say something, but then he changed his mind and ran after Hama.

Shu just stood there for a minute telling himself that he had done nothing wrong, that he was the offended party here. They had tricked him, passing off a non-bender as a bender! Finally he turned and headed back to the city and his hotel room, telling himself that he never should have visited this stupid little village in the first place. Water Tribers were just weird.

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><p>To be continued:<p>

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><p><strong>Disclaimer :<strong> "Avatar the Last Airbender" the characters and the world were created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom or Paramount or some huge corporation. This is purely a work of fan fiction because I wanted to play in their world and I love the characters that they created.

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><p>Comments: This is a very old story of mine that I have had up on DevianArt back in April of 2009. It is a follow up to my first stories "Ten Seconds" and "Floating" and forms a Tryptich of that different future after the war. I hope you will enjoy it. I will be putting up the next parts over the next couple of weeks.<p>

I appologize for the long delay on the next chapter of "I'll Walk You Home". My wife is directing a production of "Le Mysanthrope" by Moliere for an Equity Waver theatre and since there is no money everything is done by volunteers and it is eating all of my free time so writing is when I can steal some time. The show opens September 23rd so after that my time will open up and I hope to start updating regularly again.

So in the meantime I'm dusting off this last of my first stories just to have something out there for people to read and to let me feel like I am doing something creative.

The names will get a little confusing but that was part of the fun in writing the story so I kept it in. Sorry if you get a little lost.

I think it is pretty obvious who has been reborn as who but if you have any problems figuring it out please just let me know and I will explain what's what.

Yes I made Sokka blind. I don't think the Universe could handle it if Sokka and Toph could see each other. It would cause an implosion of awsomeness that nothing could survive.

I hope you enjoy it. Thank you very much for reading

JustThisGuyYouKnow

All comments are welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

A New Day Part 2

* * *

><p>Shu walked into the lobby of the "Southern Star Hotel". It was good to feel some earth under him again, even if it was only a thin coat less than a fist deep and it was not like real earth, this was frozen solid.<p>

The lobby although quite large was crowded with people. Mostly Earth Kingdom subjects but also many Water Tribe citizens as well. They all had been drawn by the novelty of the earthen floor. He recognized many of the Earth bending masters, some of them competitors in the Earth Rumbles.

Shu saw the "Stone Monkey" confirming his earlier sighting of him out by the rustic village. Around the "Monkey" was his entourage, but Shu did not see anyone in Fire Nation red this time.

The Masters had one or two students with them, but the 'Stars' had their crowds of assistants and managers and hangers on. Shu thanked Gaia that he had talked the 'Old Man' and his crew out of coming down here with him. Standing on the outside for once, Shu could see that the _friends_ of the stars were only there to get something. Fame, attention, or just plain money was what they all wanted, and the nonbenders most of all. Especially the girls! Shu had to laugh to himself as he saw one group of girls fawning all over the Monkey shivering the whole time. They would have to get their 'Star' to buy them some more practical clothing before they lost important parts of their anatomy to frostbite.

The women stars were no different. Shu saw 'Toph Too' stumbling through the crowd with her group of freezing 'boyfriends' in their skimpy outfits. 'Toph Too' wore a blindfold everywhere. Every earthbender these days trained using a blindfold, Shu had trained blindfolded for years but 'Toph Too' wore one all the time. She only did it as a publicity stunt, trying to show that she was the equal of the real Toph, which she showed she was not by walking into a rather frail looking old master and knocking him to the floor. Her boys quickly got the poor old guy back up on his feet.

There had been a lot of complaints from the real Toph's family about 'Toph Too' using that name, but apparently her name actually was Toph and there was nothing the family could do to stop her from using it. For the last hundred years in the Earth Kingdom one certain name, more than any other, was very popular for girls. Shu had thought it was only true in the Earth Kingdom, but today he had learned that the Water Tribe was the same way.

Shu felt the blood rush to his face as he thought of Katara again.

He pushed the thought away and went to the front desk and asked for his messages. There was only one and it was from the 'Old Man'. Shu didn't know anyone else. There really was no one who would send him a letter.

As the desk clerk handed over the note he said,

"We hope you are enjoying your stay with us sir, please let me know if there is anything at all we can do for."

_Find me a nice girl, and a couple of friends,_ Shu said to himself, but then aloud said,

"No, everything is fine, thank you."

"Excellent sir!" the clerk replied, then asked "I believe sir has heard that there is to be a celebration this evening in anticipation of the naming of new Avatar, complete with a display by master Waterbenders. The celebration is open to all, but the 'Southern Star Resort' has constructed a grandstand for a select few of our 'special guests', such as yourself, sir. Please accept these two complimentary tickets, for yourself and a friend."

The clerk handed the tickets over to Shu.

Shu hesitated before accepting both tickets. He felt a little guilty in taking both of the tickets since he had no friend to go with him, but he was too embarrassed to admit that he had no one to call a friend. He took the tickets and gave the clerk a quick,

"Thanks."

Then the earthbender headed off to his suite.

Shu sat in the hotel's grandstand in the Central Square of the Southern City watching the amazing display of waterbending. Other groups and hotels had set up stands as well. One obviously was popular amongst the firenation, and he was told the stands to his right were where a large group of visiting Northern Waterbenders were sitting. Between the stands and on the sides large numbers of Watertribe men, women, and families stood watching the display, mostly Southerners he was told.

Shu had looked but had not seen Katara in any of the Southern groups. He kept telling himself that he was silly to look for her. For one thing why would she come, and for another if she did and he found her, what would he say to her. She would probably just beat him with her staff, or worse yet, ignore him, after the way they had parted this afternoon.

Shu had seen displays of waterbending before and he had to admit that this was spectacular. The Masters were passing huge streams of water back and forth to each other, in great sweeping turns. To Shu, bending was for combat, for one bender to beat the other. These waterbending displays all emphasized cooperation between the benders, usually by passing from one to the other. It was very pretty but not very interesting.

He remembered the display Hama and, _what was his name? Katara's brother. Sokka… that was it_. The performance they had done just for fun seemed much more interesting to Shu then all this huge display. The two of them had been working the same object, not just passing it to one another but actually both bending it at the same time. That had been so personal, so intimate, and so in tune with one another, that it put this big display to shame.

This led Shu to think of Katara again.

He could not get her face, especially her eyes, out of his head. Every time he thought of anything it eventually led back to her.

What was wrong with him? He had only met her once. He didn't even know this girl, except to know that she was, smart, beautiful, and a lot of fun to be around. _Stop that! _He told himself. And she was not even a bender. He could just imagine what his father would say if he brought a non bender home as a girlfriend. The 'Old Man' would have a fit. Thinking about that made him smile. Shu would love to give the old man a few fits every now and again.

Shu remembered that the great Toph herself eventually married a non bender.

_Married? What are you thinking?_ The teen asked himself, a little frightened at where his thoughts were taking him. Besides Katara had told him she had never wanted to meet him again.

The sound of applause broke Shu out of his reverie. He almost stood up to pose for the crowd before he remembered where he was and what he was doing. He looked out onto the open square and saw the waterbenders bowing to the crowd. Shu joined in the applause, then, as the benders walked off the stage, he began to gather up his two "complimentary" sacks given him by the hotel. The sacks were for the "guest" and his "friend", each contained a program, a blanket to sit on, a spy glass to watch the show with, and a snack box filled with snacks and goodies from all four nations.

Shu had only taken the blanket out of the one bag and had left the other bag and everything else untouched. He was about to stuff the blanket back in the sack when he heard a distant but sharp "Crack" from the stage area.

Everyone else had heard it too and there was much looking and talking as the crowd resumed their seats and turned their attention back to the open area of the square.

There was a young woman walking out onto the stage area. In her hand was the end of a long strand of water, which she was whirling over her head. Whenever she sent it out in front of her it produced a loud "crack".

_A water whip_ Shu told himself. He had seen them before but he did not know you could actually crack them the way you could with a leather whip.

There was something familiar about the woman. Shu pulled the spyglass out of his bag and looked at her. It was Hama, Katara's friend. Looking through the telescope he saw down by the side line _I am not looking for Katara_. He told himself defensively, but, to his delight, he found her in the front of a crowd of young watertribers. She was holding a heavy coat and was taking another from her brother Sokka.

Shu could see Katara say something to Sokka then grab him and kiss him on the cheek. He then turned and began to run out onto the open area where Hama was. He produced a water whip of his own and as he raced past her he began to crack his in the air as well.

The two of them began to circle and leap around each other, each cracking their own whip, each whip growing in size as they whirled it through the air.

Most benders would pick a spot and stay there when they were bending. It was very difficult to move while bending but Sokka and Hama were bending and running, leaping, and diving around each other while still controlling their whips. This was an amazing display of skill.

At some point, Shu was not sure when, the two of them had taken hold of the end of the others whip. Now they were bending the same two whips in unison, while still circling, and leaping around each other. He heard intakes of breath and murmurings amongst the waterbenders in the grand stand to his right. This was something unusual even for them.

The whips, which had been entwining with one another, suddenly left Hama's and Sokka's hands, the water flew up into the sky and then reversed and dove down into the ice floor of the arena. As the water touched the floor a massive column of ice shot up into the air.

Shu looked to the two benders and saw the form they were using to raise the ice column. _That's earthbending!_ He told himself. He knew that form, he used it all the time and it was definitely a power lift earthbending move. There was a loud hubbub among the earthbenders in the stands Shu was in. He was not the only one to see the earthbending move, and from the sounds and looks coming from the stands to his right the Northern Waterbenders had seen it too and where not happy about its use in waterbending.

The ice column rose about a hundred strides into the air and then shattered into myriad shards of ice and water. Sokka appeared to be controlling the water and Hama the ice. The two forms of the element flew apart and began to circle the arena diving into and through one another, until they rejoined above the center and began to circle each other. The white ice and the dark blue water formed a circle as they moved. The water had a piece of ice in it and the ice a pool of water. The two circled each other forming the Yin Yang of balance. Shu saw that Sokka and Hama where also moving closer to one another as they bent each half of the circle. The circle, they were bending, became the duplicate of a half moon in the sky, one half dark and the other bright white. The moon then slowly set in the crater left in the center of the arena slowly filling it until the stage was whole and level again, and Hama and Sokka were standing next to each other on the stage.

The audience sat quietly for a moment then someone started to applaud and everyone joined in. Shu was on his feet clapping his hands as hard as he could. _Now that was real bending_. The only ones not clapping and cheering were the Northern benders. They were not well pleased with the performance, but the Southerners down on the floor where making as much noise as everyone else.

Shu grabbed up his gift sacks without even bothering to pick up the blanket he was sitting on and started to rush down onto the arena. He wanted to congratulate Hama and Sokka personally. He could see that Hama had her arms around Sokka's neck and he had his arms around her waist and was swinging her around in celebration of their performance.

By the time Shu reached the floor the pair were surrounded by a throng of admirers from every nation. He worked his way through the crowd and when he finally got up to Hama she was talking to a woman dressed in fire nation red.

"I thought you were going to throw lightning for a second there." The firebender was saying as Shu approached.

"Oh, you mean that move when we shattered the ice column? My friend Katara taught us that form." Hama, glowing with happiness, smiled and replied.

She turned and saw the blind girl standing off to the side. Hama took a step and caught hold of her friends arm and pulled her into the conversation with the woman.

"This is Katara, she is the one that came up with all the special forms we used." Hama explained, "She came up with the whole routine really."

"I didn't invent anything, just adapted existing forms from other bending disciplines to waterbending, and it really was all three of us that came up with the routine." Katara under her burden of the heavy parkas looked embarrassed and said.

"Don't be modest, it was all your idea, Oh dear… let me take those your falling over under those parkas" With that Hama took one of the heavy coats from Katara and looking around for some help saw Shu standing nearby.

Their eyes locked for a moment, and Shu felt that ice daggers might soon be imbedding themselves in his chest. Then a malicious little grin came to Hama's lips as she said,

"Here, make yourself useful Mr. Master Earthbender"

Hama threw the coats at Shu who caught them awkwardly but was able to hold onto them after a short struggle.

The firebender bowed to Katara, Shu noticed that Hama touched her friend's arm and Katara bowed in response.

Amber eyes looked Katara up and down and a half smile came to the lips of the firebender as she said, "Well it was a wonderful performance. Where did you learn all the firebending moves?"

"You just pick things up over the… " Katara seemed to be stuck for the right word for a second, and finally finished with "years."

"My name is Pam Li, I can't stay, my employer will be getting impatient to leave. She is the one in pink" the woman in red said, pointing to a young woman standing off to the side, who did indeed look a little irritated that her servant was not ready to leave. "If you are ever in the Fire Nation Capital please look me up. I think the two of us could do great things together."

Pam Li gave Katara another appraising look, which Shu was not sure he liked, then bowed and walked over to her pink employer.

Shu stepped toward Katara but Sokka came over from the other side of her and took her arm saying,

"Katara, I want you to meet Monk Lobsang. He has some questions for you."

Shu saw a tall older man in monk's robes with blue arrows tattooed on his hands and shaved head step up and bow to Katara. He saw Sokka touch her arm the same way that Hama had earlier. Katara bowed to the airbender. As he watched her bow, Shu realized that Katara was not using the normal watertribe bow but was mimicking the monk, using the same form he used. Thinking back he remembered that when she bowed to the firebender she used the firenation form. _How does she know what form to use and where did she learn all the different forms? _He asked himself. _She really is a very unusual girl. _He told himself.

Hama started for Shu but was intercepted by a number of people of all the nations congratulating her on the performance. She was very gracious to each of them but kept shooting angry looks at Shu whenever she had the chance. Shu waited, holding the heavy coats, he saw Sokka and Katara talking to the airbender a little farther along. _So…_ He mused, _not only earthbending and firebending forms but airbending forms as well. They were an amazing pair, from what Hama had just said, an amazing trio._

As the crowd of "congratulations" and "great jobs" thinned Hama was able to come up to Shu. With angry eyes and a tight quiet voice she asked him,

"What are you doing here?"

"Nothing" he said in his most innocent voice, "I was just hear for the exhibition…" he trailed off.

Hama grabbed her parka and pulled it on. When she finished she looked at him with feigned surprise and asked,

"You still here?"

"Still have this coat" he replied.

"Sokka!" Hama called out angrily, "come get your parka!"

Sokka excused himself from a master earthbender and with Katara in tow came over to Hama wondering what he had done wrong this time.

"You!" Sokka blurted out when he saw Shu standing there. He violently grabbed his parka out of Shu's arms, and threw it onto the snow. Sokka then took an aggressive forward stance, fists at the ready.

Shu seeing the look in Sokka's cold blue eyes tensed himself for violence. He dropped the two sacks he was still holding and moved into a defensive stance. Hama seeing this, joined the party taking a back stance with her hand ready to pull up a water whip from the ice beneath her.

"Fire Flakes?" Katara's question cut through the tension between the three benders.

"What?" Sokka asked.

"I smell fire flakes, does someone here have fire flakes?" Katara quietly asked.

Hama and Sokka startled, broke their stances and turned to Katara.

Hama asked "What are fire flakes?"

"Fire flakes are these great, fried, spicy, meat…, well skin really, at least I think they're skin…" Katara became more and more introspective as she explained, as if she were trying to recall a distant memory.

"They sound disgusting!" Sokka stated, then, in a confused tone asked, "When did you have fire flakes?"

"Oh I haven't had them in… forever it seems" she mused.

There was a tone of longing in her voice. Then she seemed to sense the look of suspicion on Sokka's face and tossed off,

"It must have been that trip we took to Kyoshi a couple of years ago." Then with animation and desire she asked, "So who has them and more importantly, are they willing to share?"

"There may be some in these snack boxes" Shu said breaking his stance.

He picked up one of the sacks and held it out.

Katara turned to the sound of Shu's voice and a series of expressions ran across her face. Shu was not sure of all of them but he definitely spotted hurt and anger in amongst them. Her face settled on a bemused look and her right shoulder rose and she tilted her head towards her shoulder, it was as if her whole body took on a half shrug. Shu found it quite endearing, _Stop that!_ He told himself. S_he's just too cute! _He answered himself.

"He's back!" Katara said with a sigh and then plastered the large fake smile on her face she had used before. "Has he really got fire flakes?" she side mouthed to Hama.

Hama gave a double take to Katara, and then with a nasty look to Shu, she took the sack from him.

"I'll see" The waterbender told the blind girl.

Hama began to rummage around in the sack.

"There is a metal tube…" she pulled it out and handed it to Katara, who felt it, then extended it to its full length.

"A telescope!" Katara announced "Why just what I needed, how thoughtful". She handed it off to Sokka.

"Another metal tube thing" Hama said as she handed something else to Katara.

Katara took it, examined it with her hands, then smelled the top and pronounced, "A thermos of hot tea, Gunpowder I think." She then tossed it to Shu who caught it.

Shu was surprised by all this. For one thing he was used to being the center of attention in any group he was in. He was the current earthbending champion after all, but these three ignored him half the time. He had always told himself that he wanted to be treated like a normal person not like a star but when these three water tribe teens did, he missed the attention he was used to. _Be careful what you wish for_ He told himself.

The other thing Shu noticed was how deft Katara was at handling the items passed to her, and how gracefully she maneuvered her staff to free both her hands. Shifting it from the crook of one elbow to the other, or catching it against her shoulder, or up against her _long beautiful neck_. He caught himself and physically shook himself to break that line of thought.

Hama had pulled a large square lacquered box out of the sack and dropped the now empty bag on the snow. She pulled the top off and with evident curiosity examined the contents. The box was divided up into four equal sections, each section contained paper wrapped bundles. The paper in each section was of the same color. The first section used green paper, the next with orange, then blue, and finally red. She held it up for Katara.

Katara sniffed the contents and a look of childish delight filled her features. She began to touch and sniff each packet in each section. She started in the green quarter.

"Cha shu bao", she smiled and then "Fried noodles, and let me see… ooooh plum sauce" she said as she tapped a sealed porcelain wide mouthed jar. "Honey peanuts" she crooned in the orange section, "and, oh you'll like these Hama, cinnamon almonds" She opened the bag and after a second of searching found Hama's mouth and inserted something into it.

"Mmm?... mmmm… MMMM!" was Hama's response.

In the blue section she pulled out a long rectangular paper wrapped bundle and tossing it to Sokka called out,

"Seal blubber jerky!"

Sokka caught it, tore it open and pulled out one of a number of long, white, nasty looking strips. He grabbed the top of it in his teeth and then pulled a wide bladed ivory skinning knife from his belt and expertly cut off the section in his teeth a mere hair's breadth from his nose. He began chewing vigorously and pronounced it,

"Good!"

Katara then moved to the red section and found a bag and pulled it out declaring,

"Got you". Then she opened the bag and took a good sniff of the contents.

"Oh no…" she wailed. "These are mild."

She reached back into the box and searched until she found a small paper envelope.

"Yessss!" she cried in triumph.

While still holding the envelop Katara gathered the top of the fire flakes bag to her mouth and inflated it. Then she took the small packet and dumped the contents into the bag. She then carefully folded the top over capturing the air in the bag. She shook the bag to spread the contents of the spice packet evenly through all the fire flakes.

Katara opened the bag and sniffed again. A look of ecstasy swept over her face.

"Now those are fire flakes" The blind girl declared.

She began to reach into the bag but stopped herself and with a shameful look she turned her attention towards where Shu was standing.

"I'm sorry" she apologized to him, "I've been incredibly rude, all this is yours' please have some."

"No, no" Shu answered her, "please you first!"

Katara did not offer again. She reached in and pulled out a handful of the flakes and stuffed them into her mouth. The look of ecstasy returned as she chewed them. "Nommm, mummm, hummm," was all she said.

Hama put down the box, as the bag of flakes was passed to her, she took some and passed it on to Shu, and so on to Sokka and then back to Katara who took another small handful and passed it on.

Shu had never had fire flakes before and he found them not that spicy, and he liked the crunchiness of them. Then he noticed a burning on the back of his tongue which kept growing. _These things are hot_. As the bag came back to him he had some more. The burning moved forward and he felt his lips start to heat up.

He noticed that Katara's lips where becoming redder and redder as she finished the last of them, and licked her fingers. _She has really nice lips_.

"That was good" Katara commented licking the last of the spices from her fingers. "The last time I had fire flakes was when…" her voice faded away as the memory overtook her.

Hama looked to Katara and saw her face was flushed and tears were coming into her eyes. Hama wondered what memory the fire flakes had brought up for Katara to react that way. Embarrassed for her friend and teacher she looked to see what Shu's reaction was to this unexpected vulnerability. Shu was standing staring at Katara, a half smile being replaced by a look of real concern.

Hama suddenly had an idea. She was not sure if it was a good idea, but it was one she hoped would be a good one. She looked to Sokka, who had bent up a chunk of snow, liquefied it and was spinning it up over his head to purify it. This was something that Katara had taught them, it was a way to make drinking water when they needed it. It was an airbending technique that Katara had adapted to waterbending for them. The spices had obviously gotten to Sokka.

"Sokka!" Hama said sharply.

Surprised Sokka lost control of the water that began to fall onto his head. Hama was ready for this and took up the bending and brought the globule down safely to Sokka's mouth. While she was doing this she said. "We have that… ah… thing we have to do."

Sokka took a bite out of the water and then nearly choked on it.

"What thing?" he asked.

"You know, that thing we said we would do with those people" Hama replied. She then sent the water over to Shu who swallowed it down.

Hama walked over to Sokka's parka, picked it up and tossed it to him.

"We need to get going. Katara, sorry to abandon you but you would just be bored by these people. Do you think you can find your own way back to the village?"

"No problem, just point me in the right direction." Katara replied.

Shu saw that the "party" was breaking up. It was time for him to return to his empty hotel room, _rooms_ he corrected himself. He put the partially pilfered snack box back into its bag then had a thought.

"If you are meeting people why don't you take these" The earthbender said, offering the bags to Hama.

"Thank you very much" Hama said as she took the bags.

Then giving Shu an odd look she asked,

"Master Shu, or I should say Champion Shu, would you be so kind as to help Sifu Katara find the path back to our village?"

"Sifu?" Shu asked puzzled.

"Katara was our first waterbending teacher" was Sokka's sullen reply to the question, he sounded as if he was expecting an argument.

"We have other teachers" Hama explained "but Katara was our first and continues to be our best teacher."

"If you go up to the main road there" Hama said pointing, "then turn left, that will lead you to the side gate and the path to our village. Thank you so much for the snacks and for helping our friend and teacher. Come on Sokka." She finished as she took hold of Sokka's arm and pulled him away in the opposite direction.

"Bye" Katara said waving in the direction of Hama's voice.

There was an awkward silent few seconds between Katara and Shu before she said,

"Thank you for the offer but it is very late and you probably want to get back to your hotel and get some sleep before tomorrow. You don't need to walk me to the gate, just point me in the right direction and I will be fine."

"No, no I can't just leave you here by yourself, and I really have no place to go. Please let me help you."

Katara thought for a moment then said,

"Thank you, that is very gallant of you." She held out her left hand.

Shu stepped up and folded her hand into the crook of his elbow and the two of them began to walk to the main road that had been pointed out by Hama.

As they walked Shu was continually distracted by the feel of Katara's arm in his. Occasionally their hips would touch or her arm would press against his side. These little physical contacts between them would cause his heart to skip and his cheeks to heat up. Shu did not understand why he was reacting this way. He had walked with any number of girls before but for some reason walking with Katara was different.

Finally Shu said, more to distract himself from the total distraction that was Katara.

"I don't know how you can get used to the sun always being up. I know it must be very late but in the daylight it doesn't feel late."

"I've been here for fourteen years and I am still not used to it" Katara answered. "The winters are worse with the sun not coming up at all for more than a month."

Shu looked to Katara and saw a wicked little smile on her face. Then he realized his mistake.

"Sorry." The earthbender said.

"S'ok."

Shu was silent for a time, wondering what it would be like to live in perpetual night, without even the moon and stars to comfort you. He had practiced blindfolded but even then he had earthbending as a means to see. Katara did not even have that consolation.

That lead him to ask,

"They call you Sifu Katara?"

"Actually They call me Crazy Katara, or the Night Witch. Only Hama and my brother call me Sifu and they just do it to be nice."

"But they both said that you had taught them waterbending. How can you teach bending without being a bender yourself?" Shu wanted to know.

"It's not as if I actually taught them how to bend, well I did, but not in the way you might think." Katara tried to explain. "Bending is in two parts, one is actually feeling the element you are bending on a spiritual level, which I can't do. The other part is the physical movement, the form, or kata, that you use in actually bending the element to what you want it to do. That part, the form, the movement part, I can learn, and I can teach that part to someone else."

"Here" Katara said as she stuck her staff into the snow on the side of the road and moved behind Shu.

She grabbed him by his biceps then muttered,

"Penguin feathers you are big, this is not going to work."

She then lifted up his right arm and ducking her head, stepped over his leg, and stood up in front of him, her back to him and her head rising to just under his chin.

Shu could feel the softness of Katara's hair as it brushed against his chin. The smell of her hair filled his brain, and he could not think for a second. Then she shifted her shoulders and he felt them against his chest. His heart stopped then started up again in triple time. He felt the blood rush to his face.

Katara told him,

"Ok, hold onto my wrists so you can feel how I am moving."

Shu just stood there, thinking how nice it would be to circle his arms around katara's waist, when she gently poked him with her elbow and said,

"Hold my wrists."

Shu complied taking a gentle hold of Katara's wrists, he did not want to hurt her, she seemed so small compared to his bulk.

Katara began to move, matching her movements to her words as she explained.

"For example in earthbending if someone sends a rock at you, you can block it"

She shifted into a deep forward stance and moving her left arm up and her right back came up into a classic earthbender block. Shu still holding onto her wrists followed, mimicking her movements, although with her close proximity it was almost impossible to concentrate on the form she was showing him.

"Or you can catch it and discard or return." Katara illustrated this with the proper forms. "But if you want you could incorporate a waterbending move and bend it at the same time as your opponent and send it back to them."

She then put her arms out in front of her then he felt her shift her weight to the left as she swung her arms to the right turning her body and stepping back with her right foot then swinging her arms up over her head and leaning back into him, completing the turn a full 360 degrees swinging her arms down and to the front again.

Shu followed her movements as Katara made them. He felt very awkward and clumsy as he tried to follow her. Her movements were so easy and natural. As she leaned back he felt her hair and then her cheek brush against his own cheek, and although he could not believe that he could blush any redder then he already was he managed somehow.

"And you can then reverse the movement" and Katara began it again in the opposite direction. "It takes equal or greater energy to block or catch something" she explained "but you can deflect it with very little energy, without losing any of your opponent's energy, and you can use his energy against him, while adding your own speed and power to it."

Katara made Shu follow her three more times, and then announced,

"Now your turn. I'll hold onto your wrists and you do the movement."

Shu tried to do the form as she had taught it.

"Good for a first try." Katara said "But you need your whole body to move together or else you will lose focus and you won't be able to control the element. Try again."

After about a half an hour of Katara's instruction ("foot work, hands, everything is connected, it all begins and ends with footwork") She was satisfied with his form.

"Good!" She said. "Now practice that every day for half an hour and you will get it."

She then let go of Shu's hands and stepped out from his arms and retrieved her staff.

The young earthbender had had a lot of training sessions but none like that. If he could focus on the form with Katara standing that close to him and holding him or he holding her, he would have no trouble keeping his focus in a fight. He was amazed that she was totally oblivious to the effect that she had on him. To her it was just a training session, nothing more.

Katara linked her arm in his and asked,

"Shall we be going?"

They walked on through the side gate and onto the beginning of the path to the village.

"Well thank you for getting me this far, it was very nice of you to take the time and trouble." Katara said, and then held out her hand to him.

"Thank you for the lesson, it was very interesting." Shu said as he took her hand. _Kiss her hand_. He told himself, but instead he shook it.

"Goodnight" he added.

"Good day" Katara said with a smile as she took her hand back, turned and using her staff to find the path began the journey back to her village.

Shu watched her go. He thought of the empty suite at his hotel, and the importunate messages from his father that would inevitably be waiting for him. He looked as Katara walked down the path, she seemed a very lonely figure moving away from him. It was very late now and they had not seen anyone else during their entire trip.

Shu could not just leave Katara to walk all the way alone. He ran after her calling,

"Katara, wait for me".

Katara stopped and waited for him to catch up.

"You don't have to stay with me, I'll be fine, I can take care of myself." She told him.

"I know" Shu said, "but I… I want to."

Katara could tell from his voice that Shu's admission had not come easily to him. She again linked her arm with his and the two of them walked down the path together.

Walking along with Katara was just the best time Shu had ever had. Even better than the snow ball fight. They talked and laughed and were quiet together. The feel of her next to him gave him a great feeling he could not explain. Just knowing that she was there with him made him feel alive and complete for the first time in his life.

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer :<strong> "Avatar the Last Airbender" the characters and the world were created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom or Paramount or some huge corporation. This is purely a work of fan fiction because I wanted to play in their world and I love the characters that they created.

* * *

><p>Comments: These characters are worse than cats. I can't control them, they go where they want when they want and say what they want.<p>

Thanks for reading.

All comments welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

A New Day: pt. 3 A Tokka reincarnation fic.

* * *

><p><strong>Set up:<strong> This story occurs 120 years after the end of the series. All the characters have been re-incarnated and the Water Tribe Sages are about to announce who the new Avatar is. This is a follow up to "Floating" which was a follow up to "Ten Seconds" thus forming a Triptych of sorts. Sokka who died in "Ten Seconds" has already been re-born once, lived a full life, and has died a second time before this story begins. The focus is on Sokka and Toph, with Katara, and Aang thrown in, but some of the other characters from the series will have brief cameos. I have thrown a couple of twists in but they will be pretty obvious. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>The earthbender and the blind girl had traveled about half the distance to the village. Shu remembered this part of the path from earlier in the day. The path was well trodden but the snow on either side had built up to the point that even as tall as he was he could not reach the top. It was almost as if they were walking in a tunnel.<p>

The cold really bit at Shu in the shadow of the path. In the direct sunlight it didn't feel that cold, as long as there was no wind blowing, but in the canyon of the path the sun was out of sight and the cold really could be felt.

The young earthbender was about to comment on this to Katara when she stopped and put her staff to her lips in a sign to be quiet. She listened for a minute or more in the quiet. Shu was wondering what she was concerned about and was going to ask when she whispered to him,

"Someone, or some ones are following us up above" and she indicated with her staff the top of the walls on either side of the path.

"You take the front, I'll take the rear. Stay at least four long strides away from me." Katara then pushed him forward on the path.

"There is nothing here for me to bend." Shu stopped and told her.

"Well punch them in the nose and step on their toes" was Katara's reply and she pushed him forward again. "And remember two can bend the same element!" she whispered fiercely to him.

As Shu took his four long strides away from Katara he saw movement above him to his right. Suddenly two men in earth kingdom green jumped down onto the path. Both were heavily armed. One with a spear and the other with two stone sledge hammers. Behind him Shu heard the sound of others jumping down onto the path. He took a quick look and saw three more men. Two in green and one in red. The one in red had a long black straight sword, of the other two, one had a halberd, and the other carried a large ax in each hand. This was going to be bad he thought.

"Leave her alone, she has nothing to do with this!" Shu shouted.

He recognized at least one of these men from the entourage of the Stone Monkey and Shu figured that they had been sent to injure him enough to keep him out of the next earth rumble.

* * *

><p>Khan had been told this was going to be an easy job. The earthbender was going to be helpless with no earth to bend and no weapons. The pay was good, but he should have know there was going to be a catch and here it was, he was in this miserable frozen place of snow and ice. It was the middle of the night, but the sun was still up with no darkness to hide in, and now they had a girl to contend with. At least she would not be a problem.<p>

"Forget the girl" he told Ho and Min. "The earthbender is the target!"

* * *

><p>Katara stood with her staff held vertically in front of her. She pushed the hidden release on it and eased the sword out just enough to free it. She did not want to reveal it until the last moment. It was her only surprise and she could only use it once. Behind her she heard Shu move towards the two fighters down the path, as she faced the three attackers in front of her. The ones to the right and left she was not sure of. The one directly ahead had, from the sound of it being drawn from its sheath, a Jian sword. From the smell he was a firebender, but since he had a sword he must be reluctant to use his bending. She stood and listened, Toph had taught her to wait and listen.<p>

Katara heard Shu shout and then heard the firebender's command. _Good,_ she thought, _if they think I am helpless then I will have two surprises for them_.

* * *

><p>Shu began to advance on the spearman to his left. <em>Go for the non bender first, save the strongest for last,<em> he thought.

* * *

><p>Khan had his sword out and at the ready before him. It was a long straight Jian sword with a black blade.<p>

Ever since the end of the war and tales of Sokka and Space Sword had circulated throughout the world, blade smiths had been making black bladed swords. But these were not the real Space Sword. The smiths had become expert at forge blacking their blades but there was always a tell tale that they were not the true Space Sword. The edge and point were always white metal as the sword was sharpened, and the forged oxide coating was worn off. Khan's sword was a very good blade but it too had this tell tale white edge. It still helped to intimidate those who did not know swords.

He signaled Ho and Min to circle around the girl.

* * *

><p>Katara heard the two people on her right and left begin to advance. The firebender in front of her held his place. <em>Probably the lea<em>der she thought. _Well some help might be useful_.

Katara took a deep breath and shouted,

"HELP! HELP! WE ARE BEING ATTACKED!"

Then she let out a high pitched scream. She tried to fill it with fear and terror. She had not screamed very much in her life and did not feel she was very good at it, but it was worth a try.

* * *

><p>Shu stopped in his tracks when he heard Katara's shout. <em>Why didn't I think of that? <em>Shu was a fighter and never thought of asking for help. Then he heard her scream and the sound cut through him like a sword of ice. He had heard a lot of girls scream at the Earth Rumbles and his other matches but this was nothing like that. This scream was filled with terror and death. He turned instinctively to rush to Katara's side.

That was when the spearman lunged at Shu.

* * *

><p>Khan heard the shout and the scream. <em>Very good!<em> He thought. _She's smart, now we have to finish this quickly and get out of here, no time for niceties._

"Silence her!" The swordsman shouted.

Ho and Min hesitated, but Khan did not. He advanced on the girl with his sword.

* * *

><p>Katara stood and listened. <em>The break in the rhythm will be the attack. Wait and listen, wait and listen for the change.<em>

* * *

><p>The spearman lunged for Shu. The large earthbender was distracted and was slow to respond, but managed to get his left hand out in time to deflect the spear. The point caught in the sleeve of Shu's heavy coat and ran up his arm between the heavy sleeve of his tunic and the sleeve of the parka. The point cut through and into the air at his elbow. Shu had a scrape along the length of his forearm but the heavy clothes had saved him from getting a very nasty and bloody cut.<p>

Shu turned and taking advantage of the trapped spear grabbed hold of the shaft with his left hand and drove his right down onto the shaft with all his might. The shaft shattered under the blow. Shu followed up immediately, by charging the surprised spearman. Shu ran at him and with his right shoulder caught his attacker in the center of his chest. Shu was a big, powerful man, and the force of his charge carried the spearman off his feet. Shu drove him up against the wall of the path, slamming him into the ice and snow. There was a loud,

"OOFFF"

as Shu smashed the breath out of the mercenary, who then collapsed onto the snow.

The teen earthbender pulled the broken spear out of his sleeve and began to turn towards his other assailant when the first stone hammer struck him in his side.

* * *

><p>Khan lunged with his sword, aiming for the girl's heart. He had to kill her quickly.<p>

* * *

><p>Katara listened, she heard the firebender approach <em>he has a long straight sword. <em>She told herself, and then chided herself _you hope_. _He is most likely right handed and will probably lunge, when he lunges there will be a break in his steps. If he cuts he will plant his right foot first. When (if) he lunges draw and make a straight perpendicular parry, follow with the staff low, for the right leg and reverse high with the sword._

* * *

><p>Khan took the long last step of his lunge, his sword staying on the level of the girl's heart though out, a perfect thrust. There was a flash of movement from her and his sword was struck out of line, something hard hit his right calf. He almost fell, dropping his head to regain his balance, saved him from being struck as he heard something whistle over him. He recovered and retreated as fast as he could. This was not going as planned.<p>

* * *

><p>Shu was able to keep his feet under him, but just barely. The blow from the hammer had been very powerful. He turned to see the second hammer coming at him. He side stepped to his right and used the broken spear he still held to block the blow. The spear shattered under the impact of the heavy stone, but it had save Shu from taking the blow directly. The attacker caught the hammers as they flew back to him. Shu readied himself for the next attack.<p>

* * *

><p>Katara heard the firebender retreat. She then heard movement to her left. She turned and heard this new attacker plant his right foot, <em>head cut<em>. Still using her reverse grip on the sword, she side stepped to her left, making a large circular parry starting from low right to high center and following through to low right again. Then she brought her staff in, swinging it left to right around waist height.

* * *

><p>Khan watched as Ho advanced and with an overhand cut struck at the girl with his halberd. He watched as the head of the pole ax was cut off of the shaft and flew harmlessly over her head. He almost missed the strike to Ho's stomach by her staff, then her reverse cut with her sword caught Ho's upper right arm. The power was unmistakable, he was surprised to see Ho's arm still attached to his body. <em>Must be a single edged sword,<em> then the staff came back and hit the halberdier in the head sending him sprawling onto the snow. She came back again with the sword and again with the staff hitting nothing since Ho was down.

_She must really be blind!_ Khan thought. She was using a style he had never seen before, using a reverse grip on both her staff and her sword. He was amazed by her speed and wondered if it was a result of the grip she was using.

Min charged in, screaming his battle cry. _Bad idea_ Khan thought.

* * *

><p>Shu knew he was in trouble. If he tried to block the hammers they would break his arms, and as he dodged one of them he would inevitably be moving into the path of the other one. If only he was a waterbender he would have a chance. <em>You don't have to be a waterbender to use waterbending moves,<em> he suddenly realized. He took the stance that Katara had taught him not more than an hour earlier. _Hope I was a good student._ He thought as he saw the first hammer coming towards him.

Shu reached out for the element as it came at him. He began the form. _"It is easier to deflect then it is to block"_ he heard Katara's voice in his head. He deflected the hammer up and around, and then back towards the mercenary, adding his own force, power and speed to it. The second hammer was almost on him but he was able to reverse the form sending it back at his attacker.

The hammer thrower was surprised by the sudden return of his weapon, but was able to dodge it just in time, but the second hammer caught him squarely in the stomach and the force of it knocked the air from him and sent him crashing into the wall of the path.

The spearman had risen by then and seeing that the two of them were now up against an armed champion earthbender, grabbed the hammer man and the two took off running down the path. This was all too much for them.

Shu walked over and retrieved the two hammers, then turned to join Katara; his only hope was that she had not been hurt while he was taking care of these two.

* * *

><p>Katara heard the shout from her right rear. Instead of turning towards it she spun completely around, spinning the sword in her hand so that the blade was now facing forward but still retaining her reverse grip. She did not know how this man was armed so she attacked.<p>

* * *

><p>Khan watched as the girl went into a blur of motion. He had to duck as one of Min's axes came sailing towards him, after she had struck it out of her attacker's hand. The second ax soon followed. She struck him in the knee with the staff and left cuts on his left arm and right thigh with her sword. Khan was very impressed with her skill and control, she could have just as easily cut the arm off with that strike.<p>

Min quickly withdrew from the fight, limping, and scurried down the path as fast as his injured legs would carry him. Ho, using his head for once, crawled out of the fighting zone, got to his feet and pelted down the path himself, passing poor Min who was leaving a trail of blood in the snow as he tried to get away.

Khan raised his sword into an engarde and noticed for the first time that his own blade was badly notched where the girl's blade had struck it. Khan had a very good sword, it had never suffered any damage in any of his many fights. His attention turned to see what kind of sword she was using.

* * *

><p>Shu advanced up behind Katara. He saw that she was facing the fire nation swordsman. She had a sword in one hand and her staff in the other. He saw blood on the snow near her and his heart stopped. <em>You let her get hurt, you were supposed to protect her<em>. He ran up beside her.

* * *

><p>Katara heard someone running up on her right rear. She lashed out with her sword and staff.<p>

* * *

><p>Khan saw the earthbender running up with a hammer in each hand. He knew he should run, there was no way he could take on the two of them without firebending and he didn't want to reveal that he was a firebender if he did not have to. Then he saw the girl strike out at Shu.<p>

* * *

><p>Shu felt something hit is left arm as he ran up. A searing hot pain shot through his forearm and he dropped the hammer he was holding. He jumped back in reaction and just missed getting hit in the head as Katara swung her staff at him.<p>

"It's me" Shu shouted.

"Sorry" Katara said then spun completely around and was facing the swordsman again.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Fine" was the quiet reply from Shu. His arm hurt like blue blazes but he didn't want to worry Katara.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"So far" was Katara's terse reply, then more gently she asked "please stay back, I'm not good enough to tell who you are by the sound of your footsteps."

* * *

><p>As the girl turned back to him Khan got his first good look at her sword. He was no longer worried about Shu, she had taken him out of the fight for now.<p>

The sword was a straight version of a Kyoshi Island blade. Single edged with the distinctive point favored by the islanders. The metal was as black as a starless night. It seemed to eat any light that fell on it, and unlike his sword, there was no tell tale white metal edge. This was the real thing.

"Space sword" Khan said with wonder, unaware that he had spoken aloud.

"No" Katara responded, "there will be four great swords of sky metal. The fourth will be Black Wind, forged for the Air Nomads, the third is here in my hand, Black Ice, forged for the Water Tribes, the second was Black Earth, forged by Toph for her Water Tribe husband and held in her family as a heirloom. The first was Space Sword which will be named Black Fire, forged by a master of the Fire Nation, and a boy of the Water Tribes. Black Fire was forged to free the Fire Nation and the world from tyranny. It is lost but in a time of great need the swordsman will be reborn and Space Sword will be found and returned to him. He will stand beside the earthbender at the left hand of the Avatar, and she will be the Avatar's shield and he will be the Avatar's sword. And the four swords and the five friends will stand together against the thousands and they will save the world a second time."

"I must have that sword!" Khan said.

"Get used to disappointment" Katara told him.

"I will have it!" Khan said with venom.

"How?" Katara asked him "Your friends are running away, mine are running to me. You had better leave while you still can."

A tongue of flame sprang from the tip of Khan's sword. Katara dodged to the side deflecting the fire with her sword.

In the distance behind him Khan heard a woman's voice calling,

"Katara, where are you?"

"I'm here Hama" Katara called out. Obviously she had heard the call too.

Khan knew his chance of getting the sword was lost. He had to leave now or be surrounded by waterbenders as well as Shu and the girl with the sword. He roared out in frustration, flame spewing from his mouth and hands. Then he saluted the girl and leapt up onto the snow bank, pulled himself over the top and ran for all he was worth. _Someday I'll have that sword!_ He told himself as he ran back to the city.

* * *

><p>To be continued:<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer :<strong> "Avatar the Last Airbender" the characters and the world were created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom or Paramount or some huge corporation. This is purely a work of fan fiction because I wanted to play in their world and I love the characters that they created.

* * *

><p>Comments:<p>

I should be spacing these out more but I had to get the sword fight in. Hey it's me, I had to have a sword fight, right?

This was my first fight scene; I hope it still works for people. It was kind of the reason I wrote this story to start with.

The play opens a week from today. Next week is Hell week, tech and dress rehearsals. After we open my time will free up and I hope to be able to finish the next chapter of "I'll Walk You Home".

Thank you all for being so patient and I hope you are enjoying this old story of mine.

Katara goes all Zaotoichi on them.

Thanks for reading.


	4. Chapter 4

A New Day: pt. 4

A Tokka Reincarnation fic.

* * *

><p><strong>Set up:<strong> This story occurs 120 years after the end of the series. All the characters have been re-incarnated and the Water Tribe Sages are about to announce who the new Avatar is. This is a follow up to "Floating" which was a follow up to "Ten Seconds" thus forming a Triptych of sorts. Sokka who died in "Ten Seconds" has already been re-born once, lived a full life, and has died a second time before this story begins. The focus is on Sokka and Toph, with Katara, and Aang thrown in, but some of the other characters from the series will have brief cameos. I have thrown a couple of twists in but they will be pretty obvious. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>"Katara!" Hama called out as she ran down the path.<p>

Ahead the waterbender could see Katara and Shu standing together on the path. As she and Sokka ran, Hama saw that there was a blood on the trail they were following to the blind girl and the earthbender. The snow all around her two friends was torn up and she could see that blood stained the white snow all around them.

Sokka had obviously seen the blood as well as he charged ahead of Hama at a full run, calling out,

"Katara! Are you alright?".

Hama passed Sokka in turn as she put on more speed. She was always faster than Sokka was.

Shu was standing beside Katara holding his arm. Katara was standing engarde with her sword in her right hand and her staff in her left.

As her brother and her friend ran up Katara called out,

"Sokka, Shu's been hurt! Help him!"

Hama arrived first and grabbed Katara by her arms.

"Katara are you alright? There's blood everywhere. Did you get cut?"

Sokka was next asking,

"Katara what happened are you wounded?"

Shu stood quietly out of the way holding his bleeding arm. He saw Sokka give him a vicious look on the "What Happened". Shu put on his innocent face and just stood there bleeding.

"I'm fine!" Katara shouted, "Sokka, help Shu! He's been hurt. I cut him, it was all my fault, I'm so sorry!"

"It's not bad" Shu said.

He could hear the worry and real regret in Katara's voice. She was obviously very upset about hurting him.

Sokka gave Hama a look and then walked over to Shu and inspected the wound on his arm.

"It's not too deep, just a shallow cut." Sokka said after a quick inspection.

"Katara, it was my fault." Shu told her, wanting to take the worry and guilt away from her. "You told me to stay away from you but I forgot. Katara has fantastic control," he told the other two, "she could have taken my arm off if she had wanted to."

Shu suddenly became aware of a glow coming from his arm. He looked down to see Sokka's hands glowing as he applied water to the wound. The hot pain was replaced by a cool feeling of ease, and the sting of the wound was replaced by a gentle tingling. When the light died the cut on his arm was healed.

"Thanks" Shu said with wonder. "How would like a job as a cut man?" He said flexing his arm.

Sokka gave Shu a questioning look which quickly turned into an annoyed frown.

"We should get back to the village, before anything else happens." Hama suggested.

Katara said, "Stand back!"

She flipped her sword through the air ending with it pointing down, the grip about waist height. She struck it with her left hand. Then with one fluid motion she drew the back of the blade along her left hand and sheathed the sword into her staff.

"Come on" Hama said pulling on Katara's arm but before she had gone a step Katara had broken away and using her staff found her way over to Shu and hugged his arm.

"I wish you could have seen Shu" Katara said as she began to gently pull him down the path towards the village. "He was going to take on all five of them by himself!"

"Five!" Sokka asked.

"Shu saved me!" Katara said. She reached up and pulled Shu's head down and kissed him on the cheek. "He's my hero!" Katara was hugging his arm, but she was skipping and dancing down the path, she was so excited.

Shu was caught completely by surprise by the little peck on the cheek and his face turned a bright red. Katara's arm was rubbing on the long scratch he had received and her bouncing around was bumping him in his injured side, but he was not about to complain if it meant that she would let go of his arm.

"I screamed" Katara said proudly. "Did you hear me? It wasn't a very good scream, I'm not that good at screaming."

"It was a great scream" Shu said, then to the two water benders he said, "The one you should have seen was Katara".

He began to tell the story of the attack and the fight with many interjections from Katara. When he got to the part at the end where Katara was facing off against the swordsman he stopped and looked at the young girl.

"And what was all that about the four swords and the five friends?" The large earthbender asked the blind girl.

"Katara…." Her brother said in a warning tone. "Were you making prophecies again?"

"It was just a little one." The younger sibling said defensively.

"It didn't sound so little to me." Shu exclaimed. "It was all about the Avatar and final battles and stuff."

"It sounded pretty good, didn't it?" Katara said with a fair amount of pride and, truth be told, glee in her tone.

"Katara…" Hama said concern for her friend evident in her tone. "… it scares people when you do that. They don't know if you are serious or possessed by the spirits or what. You really need to be careful who you tell them to."

"It was just Shu and that firebender." The blind girl told her friend, she then looked up toward the large teen's face with a hurt, pleading, pouting face. "And you won't tell anyone that I'm a loony, will you?"

Shu looked down into those beautiful cloudy blue eyes, that never quite locked on his, in that lovely dark face, and felt his heart leap in his chest. He pulled the girl into a tight hug, folding his arms around her.

"You're not a loony." He told her.

"You're huge!" The blind girl replied, her voice muffled by the chest of the earthbender.

"Oh sorry." The eighteen year old said releasing her.

"Don't be, I kind of like it." The fourteen year old girl told him, patting his chest with her free hand.

"Oh by the way I am a luny" The blind girl said taking the earthbender's arm again and leading him down the path. "It's just that it's spelled l u n y as in Luna, the moon."

With this last she pointed with her staff up towards the moon, which could be seen faintly in the bright blue sky.

"How'd you do that?" The earthbender asked.

"What?" Katara asked, innocently.

"Point to the moon?" Shu asked.

"Oh was I right?" The blind girl asked all surprise and innocence. "Must have been dumb luck, emphasis on the dumb part."

"Katara!" Hama warned, she didn't like it when her friend ran herself down.

"What?" The younger girl asked defensively.

"She always knows where the moon is." Sokka explained. "We don't know how she does it, but she is always right."

The quartet had by now entered the village and Katara had led them up to a small snow hut.

"You know" Katara said thoughtfully, squeezing Shu's arm "you should carry a pouch of stones on your belt like Toph used to do when she came down here. That way you would always have earth to bend."

"There was this one time." The blind girl went on excitement evident in her voice as she explained. "You know she liked to cheat cheaters, and these gamblers caught on and came after her and she bent the money on the table and used it to pin them to the wall." She began to laugh at the story. "You should have seen the looks on their faces!"

"Or at least that was a story I heard once" Katara said after a pause.

"Katara, why don't you get the igloo ready for guests," Sokka suggested.

Hama who had been holding Sokka's hand during the walk to the village said,

"I have to get something but I will be right back".

She turned and facing Sokka stood on tip toe and rubbed her nose against his.

"Their rubbing noses aren't they?" Katara asked Shu.

"Yes they are." Replied Hama in a soft voice as she continued.

"Oh build an igloo" Katara returned.

"I did" Sokka said breaking the embrace, then added, "but my rotten little sister is in it, or at least should be"

"Ok, ok" Katara knelt down and crawled into the snow house.

Hama gave Sokka a last hug and then ran off to another domed house and crawled inside.

Sokka took Shu's arm, and gently but firmly pulled him away from the igloo.

"Do you have any other injuries I need to look at?" The water bender asked.

"I have some scrapes and bumps but I've have had worse in the arena." Shu was not sure why they were moving out into the open but he followed along beside Sokka.

After about fifty paces Sokka stopped and faced Shu. Their eyes met and Shu saw the ice in Sokka's deep blue irises.

The smaller man put his hands on his hips and spoke quietly but with a touch of steel in his voice.

"You're a rich important guy from a big city and we are just three Water Tribe peasants from a little village of misfits. And when you go home in a day or two we will be a quaint story you can tell all your friends and have a good laugh over."

_All my friends_ Shu thought wryly. _The only friends I have are in this little village of misfits. _But what he said was,

"I never thought that way about you… " He was stopped by Sokka raising his hand.

"I'm sorry" Sokka said, "I'm not very good at this so please let me finish."

Shu gave Sokka a go ahead gesture.

"So any way, Katara is my sister, my little sister, and she is very special."

"I know that" Shu said, then added "Sorry, go ahead."

"I'm not just talking about her not being able to see. She can take care of herself in that regard. She is a better hunter and fisher than I will ever be. But in other… things she is very vulnerable. She is different. She does things that people don't understand."

"Like the sword" Shu couldn't help himself.

"Yes like the sword." Sokka said with a dark frown. "They call her the Moon Witch, and Crazy Katara, and a lot of other names. She doesn't have a lot of friends, and… well… she likes you. She likes you a lot, I have never seen her act this way around anyone else, especially a boy."

Sokka stopped here and fixed Shu with his eyes. Shu could see the cold dark ice in them.

"If you are honest with her and treat her with respect, we…" and here Sokka indicated the two of them, "will have no problems. But, If you take advantage of her, if you hurt her in any way, don't think you can go back to your big city and just forget about her. I will find you and you will pay."

Shu had been threatened by experts to build up excitement before matches. But this was the first time he knew the other person meant it. He was not intimidated by Sokka, well he was a little since the younger man was so sincere, but mostly he realized that he felt the same way about Katara. Anyone that knowingly hurt her would be hurting Shu and he would make sure they would never do it again.

"I understand perfectly" Shu told Sokka, "I hurt her this morning and I have no excuse for that. I will never hurt her again. If I ever do there is nothing you could do to me that would be worse than the knowledge of that hurt."

"Don't be too sure about that last part" Sokka said with a small smile.

Shu returned the smile with a small grin of his own. "Oh and that whole 'I'm not very good at this' don't worry you did just fine."

* * *

><p>As they walked back to the igloo, Shu asked Sokka,<p>

"So what is it about her sword? That firebender really wanted it."

Sokka was quiet for a time then seemed to make up his mind and began to speak.

"That started about two winters ago. Katara was out in the dark talking to the moon." Sokka suddenly stopped, realizing what he had just said, but then shrugged and went on.

"Anyway, Katara called for us to come out, that she was hearing something and wanted us to tell her what was going on." He stopped walking and turned to Shu asking "Do you have falling stars in the Earth Kingdom?"

Shu thought a moment then realized what Sokka meant and replied,

"Oh yes, streaks of light in the sky, we call them shooting stars."

Sokka nodded and continued,

"Well we came out and the sky was full of them, they were making a kind of quiet swooshing noise. I was telling Katara what I was seeing when one passed by very closely over head. It was so close and loud that I even ducked. We heard a big boom and it seemed that it had landed not that far away, maybe a thousand strides or so."

"Well Katara took off at a run into the night. There was no wind but it was bitterly cold. I thought sure she was going to break her neck the way she was running so I took off after her. I kept calling for her and after much too long I finally found her just standing on the ice. She shushed me saying 'listen'. I didn't really hear anything but she started walking off, so I followed her and after a while I heard it to. It was the sound of hot metal on ice."

"Katara walked right up to it. It was a round clump of hot metal, melting its way into the ice. It was what we call Sky Iron, there are a lot of old, old, stories about Sky Iron since it was the only metal the water tribes had in the early days. She grabbed onto it, luckily she had her mittens on or she would have burned her hands badly. She dug it out before it could sink too far. It was about the size of a kick ball."

Here Sokka held up his hands indicating a round object about the size of what Shu knew as a football.

"It was really heavy, about the weight of a seal pup. Katara picked it up and we took it back home. Well for the rest of that winter she pestered and pleaded and begged our parents to take her to Kyoshi Island. Finally after the thaw and the ice pack started to break up, our parents, just to shut her up more than anything, got the boat in the water and off we went to the island."

"And that is where Katara had her sword made?" Shu asked.

"Yes" but Sokka hesitated, before going on "But not like you might think. Nothing is ever that simple when my little sister is concerned. We get to the island and it's as if she has already been there before. She knows what and where everything is. Then she leads me off to this nasty old tavern, full of some rough looking characters, and takes me over to a table in a back corner where this old man is sitting at some sort of game."

"Do you know how to play Pai Sho?" Sokka asked Shu.

No, I've heard of it but never played it." Shu replied.

"Well I had never even heard of it, but Katara sits right down and starts playing, but she can't see of course, so she can't tell what her pieces are, so she has the old man keep her pieces and she just calls them out and tells him where to put them. I can see that he is kind of shocked by this, but he goes along, and they play. Soon the whole board is covered with pieces and it looks like the old guy is going to have a heart attack. He stands up and bows to Katara, who remember is only twelve at this time, and says 'Master … ' but she shushes him before he can say anything else. Then she says 'I have a favor to ask of the order' and she signals him to come close and she whispers something in his ear."

"He is all bowing and saying 'of course Master' and she picks up her Sky Iron and he leads us across the island to this other old guy who has a blacksmith's shop. Well I can tell by the new old guy's attitude that he wants nothing to do with some twelve year old Water Tribe girl and her brother, but Pai Sho guy whispers something to him and his eyes grow as big as a fat man's mittens, and he looks at Katara like he can't believe she is standing there. Then she whispers something to him and blacksmith guy gets all apologetic and starts bowing and he is saying 'I'm sorry master, I did not realize it was you' and all that."

"Katara tells him she is sorry but she has a task for him and hands him the Sky Iron. The blacksmith guy, I found out later his name was Tanaka Ken, nods knowingly and says something about 'there is enough here for three blades', and she says 'yes a daito, a wakizashi, and a tanto'. Now I don't know what they are talking about but the three of them nod like this all makes perfect sense."

"Tanaka Ken, holding this big hunk of Sky Iron, then bows to Katara and says 'you do me great honor to bring this to me Master, and with your help I will make you the finest blades in the world'. Katara says something about the honor being hers and that she was sorry it was on such short notice but she only had two weeks, 'Parents' she says apologetically. They all chuckle at that. She then points in my direction and says 'forgive my bad manners, this is my brother Sokka'. Well if parents got a chuckle Sokka brought down the house. The two old guys look at her for a second then they both start laughing like they were going to die. Tanaka Ken drops the Sky Iron, just missing his foot, and the two of them are slapping Katara on the back and laughing up a storm. Then she starts laughing too, just about doubling over, she is laughing so hard."

"Finally she turns to me and says 'sorry, it's not you, it's your name, there are just so many Sokkas around these days', at which the Pai Sho guy says 'there are at least… too many' and they all start laughing again."

"So we spend two weeks on the island, Mom and Dad go off wanting to harpoon a giant koy or a sea serpent or something, while Tanaka Ken makes the swords for her. And she is there day and night shoveling charcoal or swinging hammers for the bladesmith, and in the end she has her swords and we come back home. She's been practicing with them every day since."

Sokka started on to the igloo with Shu following.

Shu thought _Katara is definitely different_.

When they reached the igloo Sokka motioned for Shu to go inside, saying,

"I going to wait for Hama you go ahead."

Shu knelt down and looked at the tunnel entrance to the little snow house. He was not sure if he would fit. _I wonder if they make things my size here_. It was a tight fit but he managed to crawl in without destroying anything. When he lifted his head he found that he was in a circular room, the floor covered in animal skins. There was a raised platform, about a hands breadth high which covered about two thirds of the space. It too was covered in furs. The walls glowed with the sun light from outside and the room was almost as bright as it was outside.

"Be careful when you stand up, don't want to knock another hole in the roof."Katara said.

Shu looked towards the voice and when he saw Katara his blood froze in his veins. She was sitting cross legged on the bed, outlined by the glowing wall behind her. She was in her underwear, her dark hair unbound and falling in waves down her shoulders, chest and back. Her dark skin stood out in sharp contrast to the white walls, and her white clothes. Shu had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

It was not as if she was naked or even scantily clad, many of the girls in the Earthrumble crews wore less all the time. Even some of the female competitors wore much less in the arena. It was just _It was Katara_ and _she was in her underwear_. The only _dark, lovely _skin that was exposed were her legs, from just above her knees down, her arms, her _long beautiful neck_, and her stomach.

Shu could not pull his eyes off of her. He was completely stunned. The things Sokka had told him about Katara liking him ran through his mind as he knelt there in the middle of the house. He saw that her lips were moving and realized that she had been saying something to him and he had completely missed it. He quickly turned his head away from her and began studying the opposite wall of the igloo so he could concentrate.

"Sorry?" Shu mumbled.

"I said leave your mukluks by the entrance and give me your clothes." Katara repeated a little puzzled.

"My clothes?"

"No my clothes! Yes your clothes! Do you have someone else's handy?"

"But it's freezing in here." Shu was becoming worried, what if Sokka came in and he and Katara were in here in their underwear. That would not be good.

"If it wasn't freezing the house would melt." Katara said in a sarcastic tone, she then explained. "If you keep your outer clothes on when you are inside you will start to sweat, because it is warmer in here then it is outside. Then when you go outside the sweat will freeze and you will die. It is your choice. Don't worry I've seen it all before, though I hope you wear something underneath for Hama's sake."

Shu began to undress. It was a little awkward in the little house but he managed to get his parka and pants off. The tough part was handing them to Katara without looking at her. She had to reach out and feel for them. She rolled his pants up into a ball tied it with some sinew string and hung it from what looked like a rib bone stuck in the ceiling out of the way. She then took the parka and found the cut sleeve.

"I'll need your tunic too" she told him.

Shu reluctantly pulled the tunic over his head. He was not normally shy about his body, having spent a lot of time and energy making sure he looked good for the crowd. He normally fought in a lot less clothing then he was wearing now, he had on draw string pants that, like Katara's, covered from his waist down to just above his knees and also like her a breach cloth over the pants. In the arena he wore only very tight, very short, "shorts" made from thin leather. Now that he thought about it, it might be time to change his costume into something more practical. The shorts had been the old man's idea.

Katara held up the sleeve of Shu's parka and a spool of thread.

"I figure the parka is green but are these close in color?" she asked him.

This meant that Shu had to look at Katara again, which was something he was desperately trying to avoid. He was sure if he saw her again he would be lost and not be able to look away. _So what, she can't tell if you are staring _he told himself, _it wouldn't be right _he answered.

Shu took a breath and looked. It was hard to focus on the thread and the coat sleeve. They were both being held by Katara's hands which were connected to her _dark, long, strong arms_, which led his eyes to her _beautiful _face, and those _lovely _dark blue cloudy eyes, and so on down. With a great effort he looked at the thread and then looked away, studying his wall again.

"The thread is darker" Shu said. He wasn't sure but he hoped he was right.

"How about this?"

Shu didn't even look this time _too risky_.

"That's fine." He said to the wall.

"I'm over here…" Katara said. "When you talk to the wall it comes around and makes it sound like you are behind me."

Shu turned toward her and looking over the top of her head said,

"Sorry. That thread is fine".

Katara then measured the length of the cut, measured out a length of thread and bit through it.

Shu became fascinated as he watched Katara pull up a needle from her sewing kit, and by touch alone thread the needle and begin sewing. She had the sleeve in her lap sewing with her head up, doing it all by feel. He watched her sew for a bit then realized he was actually staring at her bare stomach. He went back to looking at his wall.

_How does she do, well everything, being blind? _He asked himself. That was when he finally got the 'I've seen it all before' joke. He groaned.

* * *

><p>To Be Continued<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer :<strong> "Avatar the Last Airbender" the characters and the world were created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom or Paramount or some huge corporation. This is purely a work of fan fiction because I wanted to play in their world and I love the characters that they created.

* * *

><p>Comments:<p>

Hi all, hope you are enjoying the story so far. Hope the names aren't too confusing for everyone. Who knew that Sokka could sew. Also got a little of the story of Sokka/Katara's sword.

I'm still working on the play, which opens this Friday. After that my time will open up a little and I will be able to work on "I'll Walk You Home" again. I am about five thousand words into the next chapter which is about half way, I hope, we'll have to see.

Comments and criticisms are always welcome.


	5. Chapter 5

A New Day: pt. 5 A Tokka fic.

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><p><strong>Set up:<strong> This story occurs 120 years after the end of the series. All the characters have been re-incarnated and the Water Tribe Sages are about to announce who the new Avatar is. This is a follow up to "Floating" which was a follow up to "Ten Seconds" thus forming a Triptych of sorts. Sokka who died in "Ten Seconds" has already been re-born once, lived a full life, and has died a second time before this story begins. The focus is on Sokka and Toph, with Katara, and Aang thrown in, but some of the other characters from the series will have brief cameos. I have thrown a couple of twists in but they will be pretty obvious. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>Shu sat, feeling the goose flesh rising on his arms. It might be warmer in here than it was outside, as Katara had told him, but it was still freezing. He began to rub his arms vigorously.<p>

"Cold?" Katara asked

"I'm fine" he lied. He stopped rubbing his arms.

"It takes a little while to get used to the weather here. Come sit by me, we can keep each other warm till my obnoxious brother and Hama come in, and knowing them that might take awhile."

"Honestly, I'm fine" Shu assured her.

"I know it may be hard to believe but I really am the warmest thing in here, except maybe for you".

"You're working, I don't want to disturb you."

"I might be cold too" Katara said.

Shu looked at Katara. She didn't look cold. She was sitting cross legged sewing on the sleeve of his parka, he did not see any goose flesh on her arms or her _flat, dark, stomach_ he caught himself staring and quickly turned back to his wall.

"I won't bite" Katara said sardonically then she added, in a silky, husky voice, "Unless you ask very nicely".

Shu sat bolt upright at that. _'She likes you a lot', _he remembered Sokka saying. He looked over at Katara again. She was still sitting there sewing but now she had a big grin on her face. _Just a joke_ he told himself, a little disappointed, if truth be told.

He sat there for a moment longer then he got up and walked over and sat down by Katara. He really was freezing, and he should be polite to his hostess. He was careful to leave a little space between them.

He looked around the "Igloo" from this side. It seemed just as small and spare from this angle. The bed took up two thirds of the space and it was only about as large as his bed at home, the same size as the one in the hotel, but since, what he guessed was the foot of the bed, met the curved wall only the center was the same length, it got progressively shorter as it moved towards the outside.

"So you and your brother live here?" he said remembering what Sokka had said about igloos and obnoxious sisters.

"And our parents" Katara added.

"All four of you?" Shu was surprised by that. Four people crowded into this crawl in freezer, then he thought and realized "But there is just the one bed."

"Sleep alone, die alone." Was Katara's reply. "Which is not necessarily true." She added "If you have a good sleeping bag and some shelter you could survive, but most hunters take their spouse or a friend with them when they go on a hunt, so they have someone to sleep with for the warmth."

"Since our parents are away on a hunt" Katara went on "well everyone old enough is out hunting or fishing. The summer is our primary hunting season. We have to get enough food for the year. We do hunt in the winter but the summer is the time to get as much for the winter as you can. Anyway Sokka and Hama and anyone else born in the Avatar year were required by the Angekkoks, the shamen, or should they be sha-persons now?" She rubbed the back of her neck as she thought.

"Whatever, the Angekkoks required all the children born in that year to stay for the Avatar festival. So my parents left me here to be their chaperone, they are something of a couple, if you haven't noticed, which I doubt, since I'm blind and I can see it."

_Katara is talking a lot, and she keeps rubbing the back of her neck, is she nervous? _He wondered. Aloud he said "Really? I hadn't noticed"

"Ha, ha" Katara said in a flat voice. She went on, "We are going to have to be rude and make you and Hama sleep on the outer ends of the bed. Normally the guests get to sleep in the middle, but since she and I are not married to anyone, Sokka and I will have to sleep in the middle."

Shu's heart stopped. With an effort he got it going again. He was going to be in bed with three other people, two of them girls, and one of them was Katara. He had not anticipated this.

"Oh no, you don't have to go to that trouble. I'll just go back to my hotel." He blurted out.

"You can't go back alone," Katara argued "there may be more of those guys out there waiting for you. And if we go back with you, then we would have to come all the way back here. It makes much more sense for you to stay here till morning and we can all go to the city together."

"I didn't think of that, but I don't want to cause any trouble or impose on you"

"It's no trouble, Hama will be sleeping here anyway and Sokka will like having someone on his side to talk to and to help keep him warm."

"But the bed is…" Shu was about to say so small but he did not want to sound as though he was criticizing the house.

"The bed is fine," Katara dismissed his objection "we've had up to eight people in that bed." She laughed quietly then added "Let me tell you, when you are sharing a bed with seven other people, you have to take a vote just to roll over. Four people will be nice and cozy."

With that Katara scooted over and closed the distance between them. They were now touching from knee to hip, from hip to shoulder.

Shu stopped moving entirely and just sat there taking in all the new tactile information. _She is so warm_ was his first impression. _Her skin is so smooth, dark and lovely,_ was the second.

Katara's impression was somewhat different. "Ohh!" she gasped "You are cold!"

She reached out across his back to try and grab his shoulder and pull him closer, but he was too broad for her to reach that far. Instead she began to rub her hand vigorously up and down and across his back.

Shu stiffened at first but it felt so good he quickly relaxed and enjoyed the feeling. He had to admit it was much warmer sitting next to Katara.

"Here's Hama" Katara said still rubbing his back.

Shu shot to his feet, hitting his head on the domed ceiling. Luckily he did not damage the roof. He heard the sounds of someone crawling in through the entrance tunnel. When he looked he saw a hooded head emerge. That was all he needed, he quickly side stepped to the other corner of the bed and sat down.

Hama stood up and handed a package wrapped in seal skin to Katara.

"I brought breakfast" The waterbender said as she stepped away from the entrance and began to pull off her boots and clothes. "It's some aged whale blubber I have been saving. We can keep it in bed with us and it will be nice and soft in the morning."

Hama stripped down to her underwear, it was very similar to what Katara was wearing, bundled her clothes and hung them from the ceiling.

Sokka crawled in and stood near the center of the Igloo. He quickly looked to see where Shu was sitting and gave him an appraising look. He then began to pull off his own boots and clothes, bundle them and hang them up. He was standing with his tunic on when he looked again at Shu. After a short pause he pulled the tunic off and hung it up as well. Sokka was now standing only in his breech cloth, he didn't even have short pants on.

Shu noticed that all three of the Watertribe teens had a long lean muscular build. _Like distance runners_ he thought, then he realized _like swimmers_. Katara had broader shoulders and stronger looking arms and legs than Hama _must be the sword practice,_ but none of them had the shear bulk that was common among earthbenders.

Hama sat next to Katara, Sokka sat between Hama and Shu, which filled up the head of the bed. Shu tried to keep from touching the cold wall of the snow house.

"Hama can you clean the blood out of this for me?" Katara handed the sleeve she had been working on to her friend.

"Sure… hmmm" was Hama's reply.

"What?"

"Well it's nothing really but why did you use that color thread it is much too dark"

"I had help" Katara shot Shu a 'look'.

Hama settled the sleeve in her lap and began to move her arms. A dark liquid jumped off of the sleeve, hung in the air a moment then shot out the entrance. She then pulled the parka to her, bundled it up and hung it from the roof. To hang it up she had to reach up over her head from where she was sitting.

Shu looked for a moment then quickly turned back to study his wall. Now that there were two beautiful girls in their underwear, he was going to be staring at 'his' wall a lot. Then Shu noticed that Sokka was also looking at the same wall. Shu smiled _at least I'm not alone_.

"Here let me do the tunic too" Hama said. She did the same movement and the blood leapt off the garment. This time it shot out the air hole in the center of the ceiling.

"Which?" Katara asked holding up two spools of thread.

"That one" her friend said touching the one in her right hand.

Katara measured out the thread and began sewing the tunic sleeve.

"Hold still a second, you got something on your face" the water bender said.

With one hand she gently held Katara's chin, she then licked the thumb on her free hand.

"I think it may be some blood from the fight." She said as she wiped something off her friend's cheek.

Shu watched it all thinking, _how do girls do that?_ He was always amazed at how easily girls could touch each other like that. Hama was sitting right up against Katara, holding her arm, as they talked, and just now touching her face. He noticed that even in the cramped space of the edge of the bed he and Sokka were not in contact with each other.

The two girls where talking animatedly as Shu and Sokka just sat there in silence staring at the wall.

Hama began to unbraid her hair, then started to brush it out. This required a lot of wall staring on the part of the two boys.

"You got nailed pretty good there" Sokka said, indicating the large bruise where Shu had been struck by the hammer. "Let me take care of that for you".

Shu was so surprised to hear something from the other boy that he almost jumped up.

"I've had worse" Shu answered, but then he remembered how Sokka had healed his cut arm. He swallowed some of his pride and added "But if it isn't too much trouble… sure."

Sokka stood up and moved over to the low entrance and said "Come over here, don't want to get the bed wet."

"You say that now" Hama quietly said with a little giggle.

"What?" asked Katara.

"Shu's got this huge bruise on his side," Hama told her, then added in a sarcastic tone "which doesn't hurt at all"

"It doesn't" Shu said, "Well not much."

Sokka bent water onto his hands and began the healing process.

"He's a boy, broken ribs are part of the package" from Katara.

Shu was about to say something but just then Sokka applied his glowing hands to Shu's side and all that came out was a satisfied grunt.

When he finished, Sokka said "That's pretty deep, you'll have that bruise for a couple of weeks. Let me get that arm too." He then drew more water to his hands and began to heal the long scrape on Shu's arm.

"Now what?" Katara asked.

"He's got a big scrape along his fore arm, he really got chewed up during that fight." Hama explained.

"No pain no gain" Shu said.

"I used to think that" Katara answered, "Now I prefer no pain, no suffering."

"Oh yes, this from the girl who goes off into the night all alone, who is up before anyone else practicing with her swords." Sokka said.

"He's got you there, Katara" from Hama.

"Boys!" was Katara's reply.

"Don't like them ehh? Then why did you kiss one of them." Hama shot back at her giggling.

"Did not!" from Katara

"We both saw you kiss a certain earthbender not an hour ago." Sokka said as he resumed his seat.

Shu felt the blood rush to his face. He looked to Katara and noticed her face was darker than usual as well.

"That was just a kiss on the cheek. I was just so excited at still being alive I would have kissed Sokka if he was handy." Katara said lowering her head and becoming very intent on her sewing.

Shu felt a little crushed by what Katara had just said. That kiss had stirred something very deep and forgotten inside his mind. Something from very long ago.

"Well it was very sweet" Hama said, then she turned and wrapping her arms around Sokka's neck pulled him to her and said "My hero!" and kissed him on the cheek.

Sokka and Hama laughed.

Shu returned to his seat beside Sokka. He could see a vein pulsing in Katara's brow. Coming to her defense he said,

"I've been fighting all my life, in practices and in tournaments but that was the first time I ever actually found myself in a life and death struggle. I have never felt anything like I felt when it was over. Not even the first time I won the Earth Rumble."

Silence descended on the group after that.

* * *

><p>"You're making a new noise." Katara told Hama.<p>

Shu looked over and saw Hama's hand fly up to a necklace she was wearing. He had not noticed it before, he would not have seen it under all her clothes, just as he had not seen Katara's choker, of what looked like plates of ivory sewn together, until she had taken her coat off. Hama's necklace was a simple ribbon with a medallion hanging from it.

Shu also saw that Sokka seemed to be nervous about all this too.

"Are you wearing something new?" Katara asked.

"No… nothing special" Hama held the medallion that hung from the ribbon around her neck to keep it from making a tell tale noise.

Katara was now becoming suspicious. She stopped her sewing and turned her face toward the other girl.

"What's going on here?" she asked her.

"Nothing" was Hama's reply. Then she looked beseechingly at Sokka, who gave Hama a panicked look, and raised his hands in an 'I don't know what to do either' gesture.

Katara turned towards Shu and asked him,

"Master Shu, is Hama wearing something new?"

"She has on a necklace." Shu reported.

"No!" Sokka whispered fiercely to Shu.

Hama looked desperate. Katara looked angry. Sokka looked betrayed. Shu looked lost.

"What kind of necklace?" Katara asked raising her right eyebrow.

"Now Katara" Sokka said, jumping in before Shu could reply. "We were going to tell you."

"Sokka only asked me tonight." Hama added, "and with the fight and everything we just didn't get a chance to talk to you about it."

"It?" The blind girl asked.

"Well we know it is a Northern custom and that you don't like it and all, but I think it is very sweet, and Sokka worked so hard on it." The water bender replied.

"You like walking around with a bill of sale on your neck." Katara said with real anger in her voice.

"I don't understand" Shu ventured.

"Oh it's very simple really" Katara told him. "In the North the old men sell their daughters to each other and make the girls wear a bill of sale around their necks to show whose property they are."

"It's not like that for us at all and you know it." Hama said in a hurt tone. She turned to her fiancé and said "I love it Sokka, and I am proud to wear it."

"What?" Shu asked still lost.

"It is a betrothal necklace" Sokka explained to him. "I asked Hama to marry me tonight, after the festival, when you and Katara were off by yourselves."

"Had to get me out of the way, very clever." The blind girl said in a bitter voice.

"It wasn't like that at all." Hama told her. "That was my idea, Sokka didn't have anything to do with it, and I didn't know he was going to ask me tonight."

Katara could hear the pain in her friend's voice.

"I'm sorry for being so harsh," The younger girl said. "It's just that… I had a friend once and she was forced to wear one of those from the time she was a little kid, it made her life miserable. I know this is different, I know that you two love each other, even I'm not that blind." Katara reached out and pulled Hama into a hug.

Katara reached out and found Sokka and pulled him into the hug. Shu felt embarrassed to be intruding on something this personal.

After a minute they broke the hug. Shu congratulated the young couple, asking when the wedding was going to be.

"We have to wait until we are seventeen." Sokka answered, "so it will be a few months yet."

"I can't believe you want to live with my brother. I've had to do it all my life and look what it's done to me."

"You turned out amazing." Hama said as she hugged Katara again. "I can't wait to have you as a sister as well as a friend."

"You'll have to wait at least a year." Katara said breaking the hug.

"Six months" Sokka said.

"Be happy you're not in the Earth Kingdom or you'd have to wait even longer," was Katara's reply. Then she asked Shu "Are you past the age of Consent?" She gave the 'Consent' special emphasis.

"Why do you want to know?" Hama asked.

The water bender had a sly tone in her voice. Sokka sat up, also interested, not in the question, but in what had motivated Katara to ask it.

"If I remember correctly it is eighteen in the Earth Kingdom, and I was just curious." The blind girl explained.

"Yes, I am past the age of consent" Shu replied, wondering himself why Katara had wanted to know.

"And ?" Hama asked.

"Like I said, just curious." Katara replied. "That is an interesting phrase, 'Age of Consent'. It is also the age where you no longer have to consent. Consent to your parents at least. You're free to go where you want and do what you want."

Shu thought of what she had just said. He had never thought of it before, but he really was his own man now. He did not have to do what the 'Old Man' told him anymore. His mind began to contemplate what changes he would like to make.

"So we're back to you leaving again." Sokka said his irritation showing plainly in his voice. "You know Mom and Dad will never let you go out to the Earth Kingdom all alone, even after you are seventeen."

"Besides you have to stay and be our teacher."Hama said "We would be lost without you. And you have to help me plan the wedding." Hama added, taking Sokka's hand.

"You're needed here by all of us" Sokka said.

"There is always something I have to stay for." Was Katara's sad reply.

"Why do you want to go to the Earth Kingdom?" Shu asked.

"She has to find 'someone'" Sokka explained. "She won't say who or why, just that she needs to."

"It's nothing, just another one of my pointless quests." Katara said. "About Mom and Dad, or should I say Moms and Dads, do they know anything about you too and your plans?"

"We were going to send a Skua out tomorrow." Sokka answered.

"Skua?" Shu asked.

"Messenger hawks freeze down here so we use Skuas to carry messages." Hama explained.

"They're gonna' love this." Katara laughed, she then tickled Hama in the side, which got a big reaction from Hama as she tried to move away.

"Ticklish much?" Shu asked.

"Katara is the best tickler in the South" Hama said, holding her hands out defensively and moving away from Katara towards Sokka.

"And Hama is the most ticklish person in the South" Sokka said.

He went on to illustrate by tickling Hama using both hands. She squawked loudly and shifted her defensive posture to protect herself from this new side.

"Don't you dare!" The water bender warned her fiancé.

Katara finished her repairs on the tunic. She bundled it up and hung it from the ceiling along with the other clothes.

"Or what?" Sokka asked Hama with all innocence, but he did not change his aggressive tickling posture.

Katara closed up her sewing kit and leaned back to put it under the bed platform.

"Or this!" Hama shouted and began to tickle Sokka, who scooted back, he tried to use his elbows to protect his bare sides. The two of them were now engaged in full on tickle fight.

Sokka kept bumping into Shu as he tried to avoid Hama's attacks. Then Sokka would lunge forward after Hama.

"I've never understood this whole tickling thing." Shu said, "I'm not ticklish and never have been".

He had people poking and prodding him all the time. Masseurs, masseuses, trainers, and waxers _"The crowd don't like hairy guys" the 'Old man' was fond of saying_, and cut men. He felt sorry for poor Sokka, Hama was all over him on the bed.

Shu felt something brush his ear and he flicked at it. He didn't remember any bugs down here. He felt it again and turned, but did not see anything. Then it brushed his right ear, he turned again but still saw nothing. Then he felt a feather light touch on his bare waist. And he immediately scrunched down and brought his elbow down to protect his side. It tickled, and he reacted uncontrollably.

Katara had snuck up behind Shu. She had used the excuse of putting her sewing kit away to move up on the bed and then had used the distraction of Sokka and Hama's tickle fight to get behind him. She was very good at sneaking up on people, and she used all her skill on Shu. He just sounded so superior that she had decided to teach him a lesson. Besides she had a reputation to keep up.

She had blown on one ear, and then the other, then had gone for his side. It wasn't easy anticipating his moves, not being able to see him, but she had practiced a lot on Sokka over the years and was very good at it.

Shu threw himself off of the bed and rolled into a reverse low stance on the floor near the entrance. He saw Katara kneeling on the bed, she was listening intently. He relaxed his stance and asked,

"Need something?"

"Coward!" she shouted and launched herself towards him. She had misjudged his height and landed mostly on top of him, but she quickly adjusted to the position and began tickling him again.

Shu tried tickling back but it had no effect on Katara, and she was tying him into knots. He decided he could never win a tickle fight with her, so he changed it into a wrestling match. He knew he could win that.

He tried to grab her around the waist but she used both hands to pry his thumb back, then she spun around and got him into a reverse wrist lock. He did a shoulder roll to relieve the pressure on his arm which landed him sprawled on the floor, he did a leg sweep which caused Katara to "Squawk" and fall on top of him. He grabbed her arms and rolled over on top of her pinning her to the fur covered floor. Shu swung his leg over her and sat on her hips holding her arms down above her head.

Shu looked down at her face. Her mass of dark hair had spread out like a halo around her face. Her smoky blue eyes were directed up at him. He no longer heard the noises of the tickle fight from the bed behind him, but looking into Katara's beautiful face he didn't care.

"Now what are you going to do?" Shu asked her.

Shu saw a smile come to Katara's lips and fill her eyes.

"Two words" Katara said.

Shu gave her a quizzical grunt.

"Prehensile toes" she said.

Shu felt a light touch on the bare skin on his right side by his waist. Instinctively he reacted to cover the spot. This threw him off balance and he let go of Katara's wrists. She took advantage and thrusting upward with her hips and using her arms she threw him off of her, she then leapt up on top of him sitting astride his chest, with her hands, she pinned his wrists to the floor above his head.

Shu found himself lying on the fur covered floor. The fur was long thick and soft, over a floor of snow. This was a lot better than his normal training ground, which was hard packed earth and stone. Above him he saw Katara sitting astride his chest, in a deep horse riding stance, her toes touching the floor at the sides of his chest. He felt sweat start to break out on his arms and face. Katara was right, she obviously was the warmest thing in here.

He looked up into her face. It was long, matching her long, strong neck. Her beautiful, foggy eyes were staring at something ten years in the future, or maybe in the past, over his right shoulder. She wore a great huge smile, her white teeth standing out against her dark skin. The smile filled her face and went all the way up to her eyes. Her long, full mane of dark hair hung down around her head and tickled his throat and chin. Her chest was heaving with each breath. At that moment she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, no…, the most beautiful thing his green eyes would ever see.

The two of them were taking great deep breaths, as if they had jogged from the city, not just spent less than minute in some little wrestling match. Katara rose and fell with each rise and fall of Shu's chest. Her weight was nothing to him. Shu did two hundred sit ups a day, fifty of them holding a stone wheel on his chest that weighed more than she did.

Shu had an inspiration.

"One word." He said.

"Oh yeah?" Katara replied, still smiling.

Shu felt Katara's weight shift slightly on his chest, he then felt little feathery touches on both his sides, just below his ribs. He was a fool, he had forgotten her toes. He was starting to instinctually spasm. He had to do this quickly before he was reduced to a laughing ball of useless flesh. He reached out with his feet and hooked them under the edge of the bed platform. He bent his knees to give himself leverage. He was having a very hard time controlling his muscles, he was turning into jelly. He bit his lip to steady himself. He looked up into Katara's face and managed to choke out,

"Sit-ups!"

"Wha…. Ayyykkk!" came from Katara as she felt herself suddenly rising into the air.

Shu's top half was sitting up and taking her with him. She let go of Shu's wrists as she felt herself sliding down his chest. She grabbed onto his shoulders to steady herself and landed sitting astride his lap. His hands, now free, came down and grabbed her waist to steady her. She was trapped between his raised knees and his upper body, her chin now resting on his chest just below his face.

"I think that was two words" Katara said laughing.

They sat there for a time laughing. Katara's knees on the ground her hips on Shu's lap. Their bodies pressed up against each other. They quieted and just stayed there holding onto one another. Shu looking into her face, Katara staring off over his right shoulder.

Slowly Katara began to rise up on her knees, sliding up Shu's chest. She slid her right hand onto the back of his neck, with her left, she found his cheek. She was not holding him in place just finding out where his face was. Shu closed his eyes, her face was now too close to his for him to be able to look at her anymore. His hands moved around to her bare back. He could feel her hair on the back of his hands. He slid his right hand up her back onto the base of her neck.

Shu felt something touch the tip of his nose, then slide along and up the side of it. He heard Katara inhale as she slowly rubbed her nose along his.

Shu had heard of the Watertribe custom of rubbing noses. He had thought it to be a quaint, silly, childish thing, but this was not quaint or silly and it certainly was anything but childish.

Katara's movements were slow and sensual. Her whole body moved not just her head, up one side, and their foreheads touched for a moment, then down the other. She was inhaling the whole time, then Shu felt her warm breath on his lips as she exhaled.

Shu moved his right hand up onto the back of her head, spreading his fingers to feel more of her thick silky hair.

Shu inhaled as Katara began to move up again. This was not the overly perfumed scent of the girls he was used to. She smelled of fireflakes, which brought a smile to his lips, and sweat, and leather and fur, and iron and blood. Her scent filled his brain. He exhaled as she did and their breaths mixed and coiled around their mouths.

Shu's universe collapsed around him until it only contained Katara. Her warm thighs against his sides, her stomach touching his as she inhaled, her soft chest against the hard muscles of his own, her warm hands on his jaw and neck, her face against his, her breath against his mouth. He could feel his heart pounding against his ribs. He could feel the beating of her heart. He could feel his blood rushing through him. He heard his own blood pounding in his ears, the sound of her breathing filled his mind. He heard a quiet low growling moan coming from deep within someone's throat, he could no longer tell which of them had made it. Their lips touched for an instant.

"Well" Sokka said.

Katara suddenly pulled away from Shu.

"It's getting late," Sokka continued, "and tomorrow is going to be a big day. We should probably get into bed."

Hama giggled at that.

Shu opened his eyes and looked at Katara. She had a lost confused look in her eyes. Suddenly she jumped off of him and was on the other side of the Igloo kneeling there with her head lowered and in her hands.

Katara suddenly, almost desperately, Shu thought, began to pull bundles of clothes down from the ceiling.

"I have to go outside for a minute." She said as she began to pull on her heavy pants.

Sokka's head appeared above the bed as he sat up. Followed soon by Hama's, they had obviously been lying next to each other. "Well don't be too long" he said.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Hama asked, concerned.

"No, no, I'm fine I'll be right back." Katara answered as she pulled on her tunic.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Shu asked.

"I'm fine!" Katara said sharply.

She pulled on her parka and her mukluks, grabbed her staff, and using it found the entrance and began to crawl through it to the outside.

"I'll be right back!" They heard from the tunnel as she went out.

"Should I go after her?" Shu asked the two young lovers.

"No, she's fine." Hama told him. There was a touch of sadness in her voice as she explained, "She does this every night before going to bed."

"She is going to talk to the Moon." Sokka said annoyed.

"But there is no Moon, it's day light outside." Shu said.

"That hasn't stopped her in fourteen years." Sokka said. "We might as well get into bed, we can at least warm it up for her."

"And make sure you leave a space for her." Hama scolded Sokka, "No sprawling all over the bed like you usually do."

The two of them crawled into bed. Sokka held the fur covers open for Shu, who looked at the entrance for a while before joining the waterbenders in the bed. Sokka rolled over and said to him,

"Not even married yet and she is already telling me what to do." Shu smiled dutifully, but as he lay down he kept his face turned toward the entrance, waiting.

After he had lain there for a time, Shu asked,

"Was it you, Hama, that Katara was talking about? The friend that was in an arranged engagement?"

Hama sat up on her elbow, then moved and lay across Sokka's back, who was lying flat on the bed, his head resting on his hands, so she could see and talk to Shu.

Shu felt a stab of jealousy as he watched her do it. There was nothing sexual in the intimate contact between the two. They were just very comfortable with each other. They were a pair, a couple. He wished Katara had been there so she could lie across his back and talk to Hama. He felt very alone, unfulfilled, he wanted Katara to be his other part. He felt complete when she was there, when she held his hand, hugged his arm. Just to know that she was there beside him put the universe in balance.

"Katara has a lot of friends…" Hama began to explain, but paused trying to find the right words.

"Firebenders, earthbenders, airbenders, warriors…" Sokka ticked them off on his fingers, until Hama shushed him.

"Katara is special," Hama shifted and placed her fist on Sokka's shoulder blade then rested her chin on it, after thinking for a moment she went on, "When she was young, she spent a lot of time alone, and the rest of the time she spent listening to the story tellers."

"Story tellers" Sokka explained, "Are very important to us. We don't have a lot of scrolls and books. When you're hunting all the time you can't be hauling a lot of books around with you, so the story tellers are where we keep our history, where we learn the lessons that we don't learn from our parents."

"And Katara" Hama went on "took the people from those stories and we think she made them into a life for herself, they were her only friends until she met me. So when she talks of her old friends we think she is talking about the people from the stories."

"Like I said before" Sokka looked at Shu, "Katara is different, it makes her special, and wonderful."

"I remember" Shu said, then added "don't worry, I'll never hurt her."

Hama reached out and touched Shu on the shoulder "I know you won't. I'm just afraid…, I'm just afraid you're the one who might get hurt."

Hama looked at Shu, a sad expression in her eyes. Then she lowered her head and kissed Sokka on the back.

"Time to get some sleep" she said as she rolled over, off of her fiancé and onto the bed.

Shu just lay there staring at the entrance.

* * *

><p>Just because the sun was in the sky did not mean that the moon was not in the sky as well. And even if you could not see the moon that did not mean that it was not there.<p>

Katara stood in a beaten half circle of snow. It was at the end of a long path that she had made a long time ago from her family's igloo out onto the snow covered ice. She walked this path every night. No one else used it, just Katara. She stood, leaning on her staff thinking.

She raised tear filled eyes to the sky and said,

"I just miss her so much. Every day I remember more and more and every day I miss her more and more. I need her so badly. I have to find her."

"I should have gone to the Earth Kingdom after Kyoshi Island, but I knew Mom, Dad, Sokka and Hama would be really upset, and I didn't want to hurt them. She was always braver and stronger than I was."

"I just want to find her, to be able to talk to her, to know that she is alright, to let her know I love her." Katara smiled at that. "I am sure that will go over real well, she'll probably think I'm crazy, but even if I could just be her friend that would be enough."

"Also there is this boy." She paused and thought about Shu. "He's smart and stupid, and humble and arrogant, and mean and nice, strong and gentle, shy and brave, uptight and very silly, sad and funny, he has a beautiful deep voice, he feels wonderful, and he smells… great. When he touches me, I feel fire run through me. I didn't plan on this. I knew that boys could feel this way about girls, but I didn't expect it to be the same being a girl. I didn't mean for it to happen, but I like him, I like him a lot, and I think he likes me."

"I'm so lost, and confused. I don't want to hurt anyone, I just miss her so much." The tears were running down her face now, falling into the snow at her feet. "I have to find her. Once tomorrow is finished, I will find her."

Katara stood there finally resolved to take action. Her tears freezing in the snow.

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer :<strong> "Avatar the Last Airbender" the characters and the world were created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom or Paramount or some huge corporation. This is purely a work of fan fiction because I wanted to play in their world and I love the characters that they created.

* * *

><p>Comments:<p>

Hi all,

Well the play opened last Friday and was very well received by the audience. The cast is happy and all the comments we have gotten have been good. So Yay!

Working on the next chapter to "I'll Walk You Home". After all this time it will probably be disappointing.

This was my first attempt at a _love _scene. I still like it.

Thanks to everyone who is reading this.


	6. Chapter 6

A New Day: pt. 6 A Tokka Reincarnation fic.

* * *

><p><strong>Set up:<strong> This story occurs 120 years after the end of the series. All the characters have been re-incarnated and the Water Tribe Sages are about to announce who the new Avatar is. This is a follow up to "Floating" which was a follow up to "Ten Seconds" thus forming a Triptych of sorts. Sokka who died in "Ten Seconds" has already been re-born once, lived a full life, and has died a second time before this story begins. The focus is on Sokka and Toph, with Katara, and Aang thrown in, but some of the other characters from the series will have brief cameos. I have thrown a couple of twists in but they will be pretty obvious. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>Shu woke when he felt cold air hit his chest. It took him a moment to realize that Sokka was getting up, and as he crawled out of the bed the water bender had let cold air in.<p>

The large earthbender did not move. Soon the covers were down and he was warm again. He kept his eyes closed through all of this not wanting to be fully awake yet. The air was cold and the bed was warm.

"Have you been up long?"He heard Sokka ask.

"A while" was Hama's reply.

"You're cold" from Sokka

"Hmm… you're warm"

It was quiet after that, except for the snoring. Shu wondered about the snoring, but not very much. It was not the loud, nasty sounding snore, it was quiet and he thought it sounded kind of cute. _Cute?_ He asked himself, _I must still be asleep_.

* * *

><p>"Now you're getting warm" Sokka said in a husky voice.<p>

"That's your fault" Hama said dreamily.

There were sounds after that, besides the snoring.

* * *

><p>Shu lay there. He felt the warm furs on his bare skin. He smelled the musk of the furs. He listened to the sounds, from inside the bed, the igloo, and the village around him. <em>This is Katara's world.<em> He thought.

Shu remembered Katara returning last night. The others were asleep, but he was still up, staring at the entrance waiting for her to return. It was difficult for Shu to think of it as late with the sun streaming in through the translucent walls of the hut.

Katara crawled in through the tunnel, sat and pulled off her boots. She was being quiet, not wanting to disturb the sleepers. Not wanting them to see her. Shu thought of saying something but as she pulled the parka over her head he saw her face. Katara's eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks puffy. It was obvious that she had been crying. Shu did not want to intrude on her. He did not want to let her know that he had seen her like this.

Katara undressed, hung up her clothes. She felt her way to the bed. At first she had moved over to Shu's end and he thought for a moment that she had confused him with Sokka, but he saw her reach out and touch her brother's head and had then crawled in between Sokka and Hama.

Shu went to sleep after that.

* * *

><p>"Getting a little too warm now" Shu heard Hama say.<p>

"You can never be too warm." Sokka answered.

"We should get them up. We need to leave for the shrine soon." Hama said wistfully.

"Let them sleep for a little longer. I have to go for a… walk." Sokka advised.

Shu heard some bustling.

"I could use a 'walk' myself."

Shu heard the two waterbenders leave. He had not thought of that. You would have to get fully dressed to go out to the 'men's room' here. _Just another reason to stay in bed as long as he could_.

The snoring was still going on. Shu finally opened his eyes and looked around. He saw, within easy reach, a great mass of dark brown hair sticking out from under the furs. The snoring was coming from there.

Katara rolled onto her side facing Shu. The snoring stopped. Shu looked and saw her face through the tangle of dark tresses. Her eyes were closed, Shu noticed, and he thought he saw her eyes moving under the closed eyelids. _How strange, she sleeps with her eyes closed_. He thought. _She is just adorable that way_. _Oh you've got it bad boy._ Shu heard a sardonic voice in his head say, but that part of him did not stop Shu from lying there smiling while staring at Katara's sleeping face.

The blind girl made an unhappy noise and Shu saw her reach out towards where her brother had been. Her hand brushed up against Shu's arm and she sleepily grabbed onto it, pulling herself across the bed to him. As she came up against him she let go of his arm and pulling her arms into herself burrowed her head into his chest. He slid his arms around her, and pulled her in. She moved her body against him. She made a contented "Hmmm…" ing sound.

Shu felt her warmth spread through him as he held her. _Sleep alone, die alone,_ he thought. He lay there holding her, his chin resting on the top of her head.

XXX

"You're not being a gentleman, you just like this angle of me when you're crawling into the igloo." It was Hama's voice coming in through the entrance tunnel.

Hama came in and stood up. She looked to the bed and saw Katara snuggled up into Shu. The earthbender looked up and saw a sweet smile move across Hama's face, which was quickly replaced by a look of concern when she heard Sokka's voice behind her.

"Ok. I'm sorry, now can I come in."

Hama realized she was blocking the entrance.

"You're nowhere near sorry enough, stay in the tunnel." She said as she continued to block the way in, and signaled Shu to get up.

"Get up you two. There are only twenty four hours of daylight in a day and we can't waste any of them in bed." Hama was frantically signaling Shu to get up.

Shu felt Katara begin to stir in his arms. He hated moving and ruining this wonderful feeling of warmth and closeness but he did not want to embarrass Katara, or start a fight with Sokka. Hama was being very thoughtful to give him a chance to get up gracefully and so he took it.

He crawled, _literally,_ out of bed and onto the floor. Katara made a moaning, wistful sound as she felt him leave.

"My knees hurt" Sokka complained from the tunnel.

Hama moved and let Sokka in. Shu began to pull clothes down from the roof and put them on.

Sokka came through the entrance and nodded to Shu. He saw that Shu was getting dressed and told him "As soon as you're out, go left then the first path on the right. It's the one that looks like a short tower."

Shu thanked him and crawled out of the tunnel.

By the time the eighteen year old returned Katara was up and both girls were brushing and braiding their hair. This required a lot of wall studying by Sokka and Shu once he was undressed.

Sokka explained that snow was a better insulator than Ice, which is why small igloos were much better than large ice palaces. Shu had to agree that the snow hut with the four of them in it, in their underwear, was much warmer than his hotel room.

Once the girls were finished, Hama triumphantly pulled her seal skin package from the bed. She passed around strips of a white, greasy, foul smelling, something, to each of them. Katara bit into hers and let it hang from her mouth as she got dressed.

"Eat breakfast without me." She said around the blubber. "I have to make a quick run, then we can leave."

She then grabbed her staff and exited the igloo.

Shu tried to eat 'breakfast' but it was not to his taste, though Sokka and Hama seemed to enjoy it immensely.

XXX

"Come on all of you. I'm not coming inside and undressing just to put it all back on again." Katara's voice came through the entrance

The three quickly dressed and assembled outside the tunnel.

"Well, let's go" Sokka said as he took Hama's hand.

Shu was about to offer Katara his arm when she suddenly said,

"Wait!, I forgot something."

Katara dropped and crawled back into the igloo. Through the walls and the entrance the three teens could hear thumps and bangs, interspersed with grunts and screams of frustration.

"Sokka if you have 'cleaned up' my stuff again," Katara screamed from inside, "I will do such things -  
>What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be the terrors of the earth!" This last was shouted out through the air hole in the roof.<p>

Sokka held up his hands, saying,

"I moved like two things, she's just so messy."

"Why does everything have to be so difficult!" Katara yelled from inside.

"Do you need some help?" Hama offered reluctantly.

"No!"

There were more thumps and a crash from inside.

"Got you" Katara's triumphant cry came from the entrance.

Soon Katara crawled out onto the path. She had on a shoulder bag which had slipped down and was dragging in front of her getting in her way.

When she stood up, her parka was bunched up around her waist. Shu could see that she had made a makeshift sash and had put her tanto into it and the parka was caught on the handle. He also saw a short version of her staff sword tied onto her left leg.

"Your parka is caught." Hama ventured.

"Can I help?" Sokka offered fearfully.

"Why do people keep asking me if I need help!" Katara spat out. "Take this" she said holding out her staff. Shu grabbed it before it fell. Katara then got her coat unhooked and pulled it down properly which covered both the dagger and the wakizashi.

"Where's my wand?" she demanded.

Shu caught Katara's hand and put it on her staff. She snatched it, turned and began to walk rapidly down the path, slinging the shoulder bag around out of her way.

Katara's bag looked empty but something small, heavy and hard was in it, because when she violently slung it around her, it hit Shu hard on the arm. He saw that the bag was green with a painting of a volcanic island on it.

The three of them watched her stride down the trail. They looked questions at each other , Sokka shrugged and gave an 'I don't know' expression.

Shu turned and tried to follow her. Katara was way ahead of him and opening the distance rapidly. He finally broke into a jog and caught up to her. He decided this would not be a good time to offer her his arm, so he just tried to keep up with her, which was not easy.

XXX

After about ten minutes Shu noticed ahead the snow was disturbed and stained red in places. He realized they were coming up on the place where they had defended themselves the night before. Weapons were strewn about on the path and the snow was torn up. He knew that Katara was going to have problems getting through the area.

"Coming up on the fight zone." He said, taking his life into his hands.

Katara's reaction surprised him. She didn't bite his head off, she slowed down and began to use her staff to feel the trail in front of her.

Shu jogged ahead and threw the shards of the spear up onto the snow walls of the path. He then picked up the two stone hammers. He decided he should keep them, just in case. He threw the two axes out of the path as well. He noticed the spot on the wall where the firebender had made his escape.

That bender worried Shu, he had seemed determined to get Katara's sword, which meant that she was in danger. Shu didn't like that at all.

Once they were through the broken up area, Katara picked up her pace again and Shu had to walk fast to keep up with her. He saw the blood trails on the snow going in the same direction as they were. He slung the hammers up onto his shoulders. As they walked their breaths came out in huge clouds of fog.

"Wish I had a belt" Shu said.

"A belt?"

"I picked up the two hammers from last… night?"

"Nights fine" Katara laughed.

_It's always night for her_.

"It is awkward to have to hold them all the time, is all. If I had a belt I could stick them in it and it would just be easier."

"If you get a belt you could get a pouch at the same time and fill it with rocks" Katara said brightening.

"That'd be sweet!"

"'Course if you're leaving soon there's not much point." Katara said her voice somber.

"No, I guess not" Shu answered. There was an unasked question there, but Shu did not want to face it just yet, so they walked on in silence.

XXX

Up ahead Shu saw the trail go through the walls and into the city. Soon they would be surrounded by the crowds of people going to the Avatar Naming festival. He looked back, the two waterbenders were far behind them. He realized this would be his last chance to talk to Katara alone.

"I'm leaving after the ceremony today." Shu said.

He slowed down, and finally stopped before the walls of the city.

Katara slowed and stopped with him. They stood at the end of the path facing each other.

"Well" Katara said in a flat tone.

"I booked passage on an airship as soon as I got here."

"I understand, didn't want to stay around here any longer than you had to."

"It was before…"

"I know"

"I could…" Shu began

"No you couldn't" Katara finished for him. "You have a life to go back to."

"About last night…"

"I'm sorry about that" Katara cut him off.

"No, I'm sorry" Shu finished.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. It's not your fault that some crazy teenage girl decided to crawl all over you."

"I'm not sorry about that." Shu said with a grin, Katara could hear it in his voice. She smiled as well.

"I really liked that part." The earthbender said. "I am sorry if I did anything that hurt you."

"If there was any pain it was self inflicted." Katara reached out her hand to Shu.

He dropped the two hammers and took her mittened hand in both of his.

"I liked everything about yesterday." Shu said, stepping into her, holding her hand up to his chest. "It was the greatest day of my life. I can't believe that I only met you yesterday. I feel like I've known you for all eternity."

Katara turned her head towards him. Those impossibly beautiful blue eyes looking over his shoulder.

"Katara" Shu brought her mittened hand to his lips, "I've fallen…"

Katara's hand covered his mouth, stopping his words.

"You're leaving today, this afternoon."

"I'll come back."

"You'll tell yourself that for a day or two, maybe even a week, but after that you'll get busy, and after a month you won't quite be able to remember what I looked like, and in a year you'll have a hard time remembering all the details of that day you spent with the crazy watertribe girl." Katara tried to hide them but there were tears in her eyes and her voice grew hoarse as she raised her face to his. "And that's how it should be. After today we'll never meet again."

"I could never forget you. You will be with me the rest of my life, and I will be back."

"Shu make sense. I know this is the worst place in the entire world for an earthbender."

"Not as long as you are here, and I am the earthbender."

"If you stay here you will hate it, and eventually you will hate me for making you stay."

"Then come with me to the Earth Kingdom."

"I can't, I have something I have to do. Someone I have to find." Katara lowered her head and was silent after that.

"So there is someone else?" Shu finally asked.

"Yes".

Shu stood holding Katara's hand. Finally she stuck her wand in the snow and pulled her hand free from his saying,

"I have something for you. I had been saving it for…, but now I want you to have it."

She reached into her shoulder bag and brought out a dark pitted object about the size and shape of a large goose egg.

"It's a piece of Space Earth." Katara said, holding it out towards him, tears filling her eyes. "It was left over from when my swords were made. It's not much but maybe you can use it as a paper weight or something."

Shu took it from her. It was heavy and it fit nicely into the palm of his right hand. He reached out and pulled Katara into a tight hug. He was hurt that she loved someone else, but that did not change how he felt about her. Finally, after calling up enough courage he broke the hug and asked.

"Who is this guy? Is he taller than I am? Is he better looking? "

Katara realized that Shu was not going to let this go.

"He's a she, and I don't know about the rest, I've never met her."

Shu opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again. Sokka's words came back to him _'Nothing is simple with my little sister'_. _Alright then_, he told himself, _my life just got very complicated_. He had finally found something that he wanted, not what the 'Old Man' wanted, not what the crowd wanted, and now that he had found her he was sure as Gaia made little green apples going to fight for her.

"Ok" Shu said, "Then we had better go find her. And when we find her, whoever she is, I am going to fight her for you. I don't care with what, poems, flowers, fists, bending, it doesn't matter to me but I am never going to let you go."

"Shu…" Katara said ruefully, but he cut her off.

"Nope, you're stuck with me." Shu told her, there was a lightness to his voice, almost a giddiness. Then he turned serious as he continued.

"Katara I love you. I never realized it before, but I have been searching for you my whole life, and now that I have found you I am not letting go. The only way to make me leave is to tell me that you don't love me. If you say that, then I will leave right now and you will never see me again."

"I can't see you now" Katara smiled.

"I never said I was smart, just determined."

"Shu, I'm being torn in two." Katara pleaded.

"Then let's find this woman and make you complete. If you choose her, fine I'm gone, I'll never forget you, but I will leave and never come back. I'm an earthbender and we…"

"Meet things head on." Katara finished for him.

"Well the good ones do, and they don't give up. And I'm the best there is."

"The universe hates me." Katara said in despair.

"Then that's too bad for the universe, 'cause I'm gonna kick its butt if it messes with you."

Katara put her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

Shu was surprised by her strength. He could feel his ribs move as she hugged him, then he belched, loudly.

"I don't know how you can eat that blubber stuff all the time." He said.

Katara laughed, then quietly, in an offhand, rueful manner said,

"I love you Shu".

"I heard that!" he said. He raised his head to the sky and began shouting. "She said it universe, you're in trouble now. Nobody messes with my girlfriend, not even you."

He pulled away from the hug and holding onto Katara's hands began to dance around singing,

"Katara's got a boyfriend, Katara's got a boyfriend."

Katara began to blush fiercely.

"You're crazy." She told him.

"And you're beautiful, so it looks like you lost out on this deal."

As Hama and Sokka walked up to the end of the trail, they heard Shu singing, and saw him and Katara dancing around in circles. Hama took Sokka's free hand and joined in. As soon as Katara heard Hama's voice, she blushed even more, which Shu did not think was possible, let go of his hands and she began shouting.

"Where's my wand, I need to beat someone to death with it!"

Hama ran past dragging Sokka with her, shouting,

"Well, got to get to the Avatar Tower."

Sokka shot an angry look at Shu but was dragged along before he could say anything.

Shu put the piece of space earth in his pocket. It felt different somehow, but he did not want to take the time to look at it right then. He slipped the loops at the end of the handles of the two hammers onto the fingers of his left hand and slung them over his shoulder. He then grabbed Katara's staff and handed it to her. He could see that she was still grumpy, but he could not repress the smile on his face.

Katara began to stride after Hama. Shu jogged up next to her and began pleading in a little boy's voice, "Miss… Miss, can you help me? I'm new here and I'm afraid I'll get lost, and I have to get to the big ceremony. Will you take my hand?"

Katara shot him a nasty look but Shu also saw a little smile creep onto her face. She held out her hand and he took it, his large mitten covering her smaller one.

"Great!" Katara said scornfully, "The blind leading the lost."

"Yeah!" Shu replied, "Ain't it grand!"

Hama looked back and saw the two walking hand in hand. She took Sokka's hand and began to skip next to him singing "Katara's got a boyfriend…"

"Don't do that!" Sokka said.

"I'm going to kill you Hama." Katara said resignedly, blushing deeply.

Shu just smiled and walked along holding her hand.

XXXX

The trip through the city was… interesting. The word had gotten out about the trouble that had occurred near the "Old Ones Village". Shu was not too surprised, there had been a lot of blood and at least two wounded men, but obviously the details had also gotten out as well.

As they walked along behind Hama and Sokka, numerous people and groups of people would point to them and whisper to each other. Katara was now quite the celebrity. Shu saw children swing imaginary swords in mock fights.

XXXX

The firenation woman that had talked to Katara after the celebration the previous night ran up to her at one point and said,

"I heard you were kicking butt and taking names last night. Good for you."

The woman then saw that Katara was holding Shu's hand. She gave him a disgusted look, and turned her attention back to the newly discovered swords woman.

The firebender took Katara by the shoulders as she told her,

"I have been thinking of forming my own select team of specialists for certain jobs. You and your waterbending friend would be perfect for it. I would like to write you with my ideas, if I sent it to your friend, she could read it to you and answer for you. All I'm asking is for you to consider it. You would be well rewarded."

"A… sure I guess so." Katara responded a little surprised by the offer.

The firebender's hands lingered a moment on Katara's shoulders, then gently slide down and squeezed her upper arms before the woman pulled them to her own chest and bowed to the younger girl.

"Bowing" Shu whispered to Katara, who freed her hand and bowed in return.

"Sorry I have to go," Pam Li said, recovering from her bow. She shot Shu another disgusted look then said," I'll send you that letter soon" she then jogged off into the crowd.

"Odd woman" Katara said as she reached for Shu's hand. He gladly took hers and they continued on.

XXXX

Walking along Shu saw the Stone Monkey and his crew on the street. He caught the Monkey's eyes for a moment and waved to him, using his left hand with the two hammers. There was a look of hate in the Monkey's eyes, but there was also a tinge of fear there that made Shu feel very good.

Shu wished they would try something here and now. He thought of the wakizashi tied to Katara's thigh. He would love to just stand back and let her take on the Monkey and his crew by herself. He saw in his imagination what it would look like, Katara with two swords going all out against the Monkey and his entire crew, now that would be beautiful. He would jump in if it looked like she might get hurt, but he didn't think there was much chance of that. A loud joy filled laugh rumbled out of his chest at the thought.

"What was that for?" Katara asked him.

"Oh I was just imagining my girlfriend kicking butt and taking names." He said squeezing her hand.

XXXX

By the time they reached The Tower of the Avatars the crowds had grown until the gigantic square in front of the tower was full of people.

The Tower was an impressive structure, even to Shu's jaded eyes, being from the Earth Kingdom where large and massive was something of a religion. It stood twenty stories tall and was made entirely of ice.

Shu had not believed the watertribe teens at first. There were too many colors for it to be of ice, but Katara had explained that just as there are many kinds of earth "Dirt, sand, mud, igneous, metamorphic, etc…" there are just as many kinds of ice, "Sea ice, old sea ice, blue ice, green ice, etc…". She did admit that there was no "Red or orange ice."

In front of the large and intricately decorated double doors was a small group of young men and women dressed in various shades of watertribe blue. They were the ones born in the Avatar year. Hama and Sokka excused themselves and joined the group.

Shu put down his hammers and stood with Katara a little ways off to the side. They watched as the sun moved around the sky until the light struck a clear dome at the top of the tower. Light began to shine from within the tower. The light spiraled down the inside of the building. Three old waterbenders then stepped in front of the doors and began bending up three columns of water. They sent the streams of water into three openings at the base of the designs on the doors.

Shu could hear turbines spinning and valves opening and closing. He saw sections of the designs on the doors change and heard bolts being drawn out. The doors opened. Inside he could see a long line of statues spiraling up out of sight. He saw the eyes of the highest statue glow with a brilliant light, then the next in line began to glow, descending down to the last statue, that of a tall elegant figure dressed as an air nomad monk with blue arrows on his head, hands, and feet.

The light from the eyes of the last statue shot out into the small group of young men and women standing in front of the doors. Shu could see an answering glow from amongst the young people. He could feel the air begin to move turning into a strong wind. The candidates began to move, and Shu realized that the new light was coming from only one of them.

"What's happening?" Katara asked him.

"There is this light coming from a statue and Hama is glowing" He told her.

"Of course she is." Katara said with a smug smile on her face.

There was a sphere of light around Hama as she stood there in the door way. She was still holding Sokka's hand. He was looking at her in amazement, then a great smile spread across his face as she squeezed his hand. Then a brilliant light shot out of her eyes, and up into the sky piercing the clouds. She looked around for a moment, then she looked at Katara and waved with her free hand and in a strange voice that seemed to be both her own and another voice as well said,

"Hey boomerang guy."

"Hey Avatar." Katara responded, smiling.

Then Hama turned, waved to Shu and said "Hey Bandit, glad you could be here." Shu waved back in an automatic reaction, he had no idea what was happening or who 'Bandit' was.

"Wait? What?" Katara shouted.

Hama then turned to Sokka, and said,

"I knew you would be here." She lifted his hand and kissed it.

Katara pulled Shu's hand and shouted at him,

"Who did she call Bandit?"

"Me" he said, "What was all that about?" he asked confused.

"You! Are you sure!" Katara demanded.

The watertribe shamen began to move towards Hama, the light from her eyes was growing less and the wind was dying around her.

"Well she waved at me, and I waved back." Shu answered.

"Of course you did! Of course you are! You're the Bandit!" Katara shouted in glee. In a quieter voice she continued, "I'm such an idiot, of course you are, I couldn't love anyone else, she had to be you."

The blind girl dropped her wand and pulled the earthbender into a fierce hug. He felt his breath pushed out of him, by the strength of it.

"You found me," Katara said, tears streaming down her face now. "I always thought I would have to find you, but you found me."

"Are you alright?" Shu asked hearing the tears in her voice.

"I'm wonderful" Katara answered and she hugged him even harder. Shu felt his feet leave the ground for a second.

"I'm confused" Shu said in a distracted voice. "But if this means you love me, I'm good with it."

"Oh yes, you're stuck with me now. The only way you can get rid of me is to tell me that you don't love me, and I don't even think that will work."

Shu's heart leapt up into his throat and his stomach turned upside down and inside out. Then he remembered the 'she' that Katara had said she had to find. He was so happy he did not want to risk any chance of destroying it but he had to ask. He did not want Katara to be hurt.

"Does this mean we don't have to search for 'her'?"

"That's right, she found me, I didn't have to look for her at all."

Shu felt his heart drop now.

"Who is she?" he asked thinking of the Firenation woman from earlier.

"She's you!" Katara said releasing him from the hug.

She brought her hands up to his face and gently pulled him down to hers. Their noses touched and then their lips. Shu wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him.

After a time, Katara pulled away, but then came back for a second kiss, this one was shorter, but not by much.

"You've always been her, I should have known that as soon as I fell in love with you." Katara told him, her head resting against his chest. "Are you ok, your heart is going crazy in there?"

"I'm wonderful."

"Wonderful?"

"Yes, amazingly wonderful!"

"Because?"

"Because, you love me."

"And?"

"And I love you." Shu bent his head down and rubbed his nose against hers.

Katara quietly, in a breathy voice, began to chant "Shu's got a girlfriend…". Shu stopped her mouth with his own.

When they broke from the kiss Katara told him,

"I wish I had thought of that"

"Hay!, HAY!" Sokka's angry shouts caused Shu to look up. He saw Sokka and Hama hand in hand walking towards them. Sokka was pointing angrily at him.

"That's my baby sister you're mo… OW!" This last was due to Hama elbowing Sokka in the ribs.

Katara turned towards the benders, she pulled Shu's arms around her with her back against his chest.

"Oh, thank you brother dear for saving me," sarcasm dripping from her words. Then she added in a stage whisper to Shu, "It's a good thing he didn't see us last night."

"What?... WHAT?" Sokka screamed.

Hama pulled his arm and fiercely whispered to him,

"Sokka please! People are starting to look at us."

"I'm just being a good brother" he replied in a quieter voice.

"You're acting more like my Mother" Katara snorted. This got a chuckle from Shu, and a giggle from Hama.

Sokka and Hama had finally arrived next to the new couple when Sokka said,

"And what would our Mother say if she saw you with this 'old' man."

"Our mother is the one who left me here to keep an eye on your two." Katara responded, then she added in a thoughtful tone, "Which shows a certain lack of understanding, if you think about it logically."

That got a laugh from both Shu and Hama. Sokka just fumed.

"And what would our mother say if she knew that the reason you didn't see this horrible 'old' man…"

"I'm not horrible" Shu protested

"Sorry, this decrepit old man, that any better?" Katara asked him

"I'll let you know when I find out what it means."

"Where was I?"

"Mother, reason" Hama supplied

"Oh yes…" Katara said narrowing her eyes and shifting into an accusatory tone. "If the reason you where not watching over me was because you and Hama were practicing your fish faces with one another."

Katara then turned her face into a caricature of a goggle eyed person kissing, while making sucking sounds. "I have very good hearing you know."

Hama's face went very dark, and Sokka stood there sputtering.

"You're so bad" Shu said to the top of Katara's head.

"All I've got is meat and sarcasm" she replied.

"And me" Shu said, looking down to her.

Katara turned her head up towards Shu's and eventually found his lips with her own.

Sokka's sputtering became louder.

"Awww, their cute." Hama told her betrothed.

They broke the kiss. Katara said,

"You're the first boy I've ever kissed. I kind of like it." Before Shu could respond Katara turned towards the other couple and asked,

"So Hama, anything interesting happen to you today?"

That got a laugh from Shu and Hama, Sokka was still fuming.

"Nothing as important as you finding a boyfriend."

"Oldmanfriend." Katara corrected her.

"Ok, ok…" Sokka finally conceded, "he's not that old. It's just that you're my baby sister, and I have always taken care of you. I just want you to be happy."

"Good!" Katara said as she stepped out of Shu's arms and hugged her brother. "You've done a great job," she said, her head against his chest, "because I have never been happier than I am right now. So keep up the good work."

"I'll try" Sokka said hugging her back. But he still shot a stern look at Shu over Katara's head.

Shu could not contain his curiosity any longer and finally asked, "So Hama what happened?"

"Yes what was that all about. I was so frightened when you started to glow." Sokka said breaking the hug with his sister and taking Hama's hand.

"Sokka!" Katara said exasperated, "Let Hama talk, it's not about you this time."

Hama stood smiling at the two siblings being siblings.

"Well we were all standing there and the doors opened and the light from the last statue seemed to hit me right in the face."

"I was standing…"

"Sokka!"

"Sorry."

Hama waited for the blue eyed pair to settle down then continued.

"The light blinded me, and when I could see again all I could see was this impossibly large flat ice plain. I was standing on the ice and there was a line of people stretching off into the horizon. They were all different and their eyes were glowing and looking at me."

"The first in line was this old man, he was dressed like that monk we met last night, and he had blue arrows on his head, arms and legs. He smiled at me, and it was really strange but his smile looked like that of a young boy."

"He stepped up to me and he took my hand. He said his name was Aang and that they were all there to help me, and that I could call on them anytime I needed to. Then he smiled his boyish smile again and asked me for a favor. He wanted to say 'hi' to some old friends and would I help him. He said it would really help one of them, that 'he has to make a difficult decision that he doesn't need to make'.

"I told him of course. Aang then thanked me and he stepped in to hug me and suddenly I could see the Avatar Tower and everyone standing around. I tried to look over at Sokka, but nothing happened. I could see and hear but I was not in control of anything. That's when I waved at you Katara and said the 'boomerang guy' thing and then to Shu and then to Sokka.

"After I kissed Sokka's hand, I heard Aang thank me again, and I felt him leave. After that the Angekkoks came up and started talking to me."

"What was that all about?" Sokka asked, "The waving and the funny names."

"I don't know any more than you do, that was all Avatar Aang told me."

"Well next time you see him" Katara took Hama's hand "Tell him thank you for me, will you."

"Of course." Hama gave Katara a questioning look, but of course Katara did not see it.

"It looks as though you have some well wishers" Shu warned Hama.

The earthbender had seen the crowd shift from the front of the Tower, and begin to approach the four friends. Shu took inordinate satisfaction when he saw that the Stone Monkey et al was leaving. _I guess he doesn't think he is going to be the Avatar's new earthbending teacher_, he thought to himself smiling.

"Oh no" Hama despaired.

"You wanted to be the Avatar" Katara crowed "Now you see the advantage of being a non-bender."

Hama gave Katara a nasty look that quickly turned into a nasty smile. She raised her arms over her head to get the people's attention and to quiet them. She could see that there were people from every nation in the group.

Hama grabbed Katara's arm and pulled her in next to her. Then she raised her free hand and in a loud voice told the crowd.

"Thank you very much for you warm wishes, I want you all to know that I have already selected my earthbending, firebending and airbending, teachers. They" she put special emphasis on the 'they'. " are my old waterbending teacher and friend Katara of the Southern Water Tribe" with that she pulled her friends arm up into the air so that everyone would know who she was talking about. "But I am sure she will be happy for any assistance in these difficult tasks that you would care to offer."

"You b…,"Katara began but caught herself and finished with "…ender, you"

Hama just laughed.

Her announcement had created quite a stir in the crowd of people before them. There was much pointing and talking about the crazy swords woman who could teach all forms of bending even though she was not a bender herself.

XXXX

On the outskirts of the crowd a firebender in Earth Kingdom green took special notice. He no longer wore his sword slung on his back. He had it hidden in a large sack that he carried with him. In the sack was all that he would need for awhile at least, including a new acquisition. He had obtained a mask that he would have to wear from now on when he went out on jobs. The earthbender had seen him during the fight last night and it would not be a good idea for his description to be circulated in the bender's presence. And from what he had seen the earthbender was going to be a presence around the blind girl for some time to come.

That would complicate matters for the firebender, but it would not stop him. He now had a purpose in his life, a quest to complete. He was going to have that sword if it took him the rest of his life.

XXX

Even with Shu and Sokka running interference for the two young women, it took hours for them to get through all the well wishers and the offers of and requests for help. By the time they were finished they were all tired and hungry.

"I'm starving" Katara announced.

"You're always starving" Sokka pointed out. "If you marry her Shu you're going to go broke feeding her."

"There's some aged whale blubber left." Hama offered as they began to walk back into the city.

"I have an idea" Shu offered, "Why don't we eat at my hotel, it will be my treat." Shu could not face another meal of blubber.

"Oooh is that the one with the imported earth floors?" Hama asked excited.

"That's the one." Shu said pressing his advantage.

"I've never seen earth before, let's go" Hama begged Sokka.

"And speaking of earth" Shu said to Katara taking her hand as they walked "As the Avatar's earthbending teacher you might need a place with some… oh I don't know… earth maybe?"

"Well a really good teacher could make do, unless you have someplace specific in mind." Katara answered.

"I do know of this big house that will soon be almost empty" (_as soon as the 'Old Man' gets my letter to move that bunch of freeloaders out)_ "that has a really big training ground attached to it. I may even be able to find some poor schlub to help with the more mundane aspects of the training."

"Oh? I've always liked schlubs" Katara said, squeezing his hand.

"Of course the Avatar's teacher's brother would have to come along to watch over her."

"Of course" Sokka said.

"We could take a ship any time that would be convenient for you three."

"SHIP!" Katara screamed. "Shu you're going to miss your airship, we've got to hurry." She started to try and drag Shu along be he just held her back.

"That airship left hours ago, I saw it take off when you were talking to that airbender delegation." Shu told her.

"What are you going to do? You're stuck here now. All the boats will be full and you won't be able to get passage for a week at least." Katara moaned.

"Guess I'll have to find a place to stay until we can all go to my place in Gaoling."

"You can always stay with us." Hama offered.

"Us?" Sokka asked, then he added "Well ok, but you still have to sleep on the edge. And I don't feel in the least bit sorry for you."

"You know who I feel sorry for" Katara said wistfully.

"Who?" Shu asked putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to him.

""The poor bird that will have to carry the letters explaining all this to our parents."

XXXXX

The End

XXXX

**Disclaimer :** "Avatar the Last Airbender" the characters and the world were created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom or Paramount or some huge corporation. This is purely a work of fan fiction because I wanted to play in their world and I love the characters that they created.

XXXXX

Comments: That's it. Thank you very much for reading all of this, I hope you liked it. I also hope it became clear at the end, and was not too confusing to you, but just in case;

Sokka reborn as blind Katara

Toph reborn as large Shu

Katara reborn as Sokka the older brother (payback is everything :-).

And

Aang reborn as Hama

Zuko and Azula have little cameos. I wonder what color that mask the firebender picked up is?

Thanks again for reading.

Comments, questions and criticisms are always welcome.


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